Jonathan and Sommer

A Tasty Surprise

2011-10-15T21:02:00.000-04:00

Unfortunately neither one of us remembered it was Sweetest Day until late but thankfully we both were in the mood for something adventurous today (for us anyway). When we set out at 4 o'clock today, our intention was to go to a recommended Puerto Rican restaurant in Dayton. But when we got there, we were greeted with a sign that said "closed due to family emergency". I was definitely a little deflated when we saw the sign. I had been looking forward to it and had planned on taking some great pictures to share here on my blog. As we sat there in the parking lot trying to think of an adventurous plan B, I reached in the back seat and grabbed my Entertainment book and found a coupon for a restaurant that was just a few miles from where we were. I asked Jonathan if he would be up for some Indian food tonight and to my surprise, he said yes! I have never even asked him to try Indian food before because I assumed he wouldn't be interested, but he was definitely up for something different tonight!

Jonathan holding the menu with the restaurant named Ajanta. Our server was so nice. I told her this was our first time trying Indian food and she was so helpful in explaining the menu to us.

Our courtesy drink. It was Mango juice with yogurt. It was soooo good and perfect for some of the spicy food we tried.

This was our appetizer sampler plate. It had a fabulous Pakora chicken, fried cheese, a fried potato pouch of sorts, Vegetable Pakora and some sort of flat crisp. All of it was wonderful. I felt like my taste buds were suddenly awake! Not just spicy hot awake but, "WOW, that was tasty!" kind of awake.

And this is the sampler platter for my entree: bottom left, Dal. top left, Aloo Chloey (made with Chick peas). top middle, was coconut milk with rice. Top right, Lamb Curry. Bottom right, Tandoori Chicken. Middle: Basmati Rice.

This is Jonathan's dish: Lamb Curry with mushrooms.

This was my favorite part, the Naan. It is Indian flat bread. Soooo good.

And this is what came home with us. Looks like we get to enjoy our meal all over again!

On top of Spaghetti......

2011-10-11T20:03:00.000-04:00

I happened to be singing in my head the other day 'On Top of Spaghetti'. I realized I was singing the same first verse over and over again and I didn't know (or couldn't remember) the rest of the song. One of my friends came across the website scoutsongs.com and it had all the words! When I read the words, I realized I had never heard the last few verses before.
So, for your amusement, I have decided to share this song for those that never knew all the words to this goofy song. So sorry if this becomes the song you sing in your head all day tomorrow........Baahaha!

ON TOP OF SPAGHETTI:

On top of spaghetti,
All covered with cheese,
I lost my poor meatball,
When somebody sneezed.

It rolled off the table,
And on to the floor,
And then my poor meatball,
Rolled out of the door.

It rolled in the garden,
And under a bush,
And then my poor meatball,
Was nothing but mush.

The mush was as tasty
As tasty could be,
And then the next summer,
It grew into a tree.

The tree was all covered,
All covered with moss,
And on it grew meatballs,
And tomato sauce.

So if you eat spaghetti,
All covered with cheese,
Hold on to your meatball,
Whenever you sneeze

What a difference a year makes.

2011-09-25T01:36:00.001-04:00

Wow! What a year this has been. I am completely amazed at how different life is right now compared to this time last year.
In order for me to fully explain what life has been like, I must first back track about 3 years before this time last year. At that time I was frantically looking for a job just before Jonathan and I got married. My plan was to have a house, a job and to be moved from Northern Kentucky all just before our wedding. I ended up taking the first job that was offered to me and was so excited because I was already pretty familiar with the company. After only a few weeks in this position I quickly discovered that I was very much under qualified for this job, but was determined to make it work some how. So much determined that I allowed myself to be miserable for the 3+ years I was there. I found myself working many extra hours just to keep up with the unbelievable work load, allowed myself to be degraded by others and even behaved badly in an attempt to fit in.  Emotionally and physically , my life revolved around my job. It was kinda sad that I spent my first 3 years of marriage, married more to my job, a terrible job at that.
So in October 2010, I was called into a meeting room and was told I was getting"workforce reduced"along with 7 other people that day. As rotten as the scenario seemed at the time, I look back now and see they really did try to be as decent as they could when breaking the news. I even got a little severance out of it. It was probably best that it happened that way rather then working there another year and possibly being fired because of my performance.   I can remember going home that day and being in shock. I had a million things running through my head but the biggest was the mess that I had to leave on my desk for my co-workers to figure out. Some of the same people I had a hard time working with, I strangely felt guilty for the unfinished work still on my desk I had to leave them. I had a strong urgency to call 2 of my biggest clients to let them know I was no longer working for the company so they wouldn't keep sending me emails.
My first week off was mostly a blur. I believe I was still in shock much of the week. I was feeling more sad because I was suddenly cut off from the only life I had known for the last 3 years. All the clients and co-workers I talked to daily were suddenly not a part of my life anymore. It was even sadder that some people who I thought were friends, really could have cared less that I was gone (except for AmyS. Love ya Amy!) It was just business as usual. I spent many months while I was off trying to fight off the bitterness of what happened, something that kept me up at night. I started to see just how much this job was a part of my life, too much of my life. How could I stay at a job that consumed so much of my personal life? I allowed myself to stay at this job because of fear. Fear that I couldn't do another job. Fear that I wouldn't find one that paid as well. Fear of having to start over. While dealing with all those fears, I was also dealing with the daily mental and emotional challenges of a job I didn't like and didn't do well.
As the months rolled by, I started my job search. In November I started working with a company that helped me with my resume and also provided some refresher courses on how to's and what it's like to find a job in today's job market. I must say, they put an awesome resume together for me. It's very hard to make your own resume at a time when you feel like you have no usable skills that employers will want. I gave them my work history and they were able to figure out the best way to sell my skills. The only positive about my previous job I would say is that I was given the opportunity to learn new usable skills that looked great on my resume. Once my resume was done and my study courses were complete, I was more then ready to start my search.
I got my first interview at the end of November. After answering some questions by email, doing a phone interview and taking a basic skills test, I was told that I made the top 9 of over 400 applicants. I ended up finally going to the interview and it went well but was told that there were other applicants that had more years of experience that would likely be chosen. Even though I didn't get that job, I have to say it was a great boost to my self-esteem to hear that I was in the final 9 of 400. It was also great to hear that I had done well on my basic skills test, which really surprised me since I have been out of school for so long. I scored a 98% on the business reading comprehension and a 94% on the Math. Even though I studied especially hard for the math, I was still surprised I scored so high since math has always been my weakest subject.
The job prospects started to look bleak about half way through December. I was really starting to get worried but people kept telling me that things would start to pickup after the first of the year. And that they did. About the second week in January the job options just exploded. I was able to apply for over 15 jobs within 1 week, all of which appeared to be a good match for my skills. I started to receive calls pretty quick and started interviewing again the last week of January and continued with at least 1 interview a week for the next 6 weeks and at least 2 of those weeks I had 2 interviews! As exciting as it was to get a call for an interview, I was starting to get pretty discouraged with the rejections. Some interviews were great. I would leave feeling great and think I had a real shot only to be deflated with a phone call or email a few days or weeks later. Other interviews were down right awful. I would get there and realize I was not qualified for the job. I would fumble my way through the interview and would pray they would end it quick to put us both out of our misery. The interview process is definitely and emotional up and down process.
While my self-esteem was slowly being plucked away a little everyday by perfect strangers, I found myself slipping into the dark pit of depression and also found myself experiencing insomnia for the first time in my life. It was kind of nice to not have to worry about driving through the weather through the winter, but it left me at home closed up all winter. This is not good for someone that struggles with seasonal depression. Many days I didn't even step outside to go get the mail. Many people tried to convince me to get out and take advantage of the time off but I found it very hard to get out without feeling guilty for not being at home looking for a job.
Unemployment is also another hassle of being unemployed but also a God send. No matter how much I worried about money during this time, things always managed to work out. I had my severance for the first few months and then my unemployment benefits kicked in. And strangely during this time, Jonathan was getting all kinds of overtime and even had the chance to work a prevailing wage job which easily made up the difference from my unemployment check. As much as I worried during this time, God was always providing for us. And because of that we made sure to stay faithful with our tithing.
So about mid February I received a call from a company called 4Over saying they were hiring 3 new customer service reps. I did a phone interview and then went in for my interview. The interview was the easiest one I had been on. The people who I interviewed with were completely approachable and not the least bit intimidating. I was pleased to learn that I was completely qualified for the job, based on what they wanted. During a time when companies are cutting, they were hiring 3 people! I felt I had a pretty good shot but had learned to not get my hopes up. Two weeks later they called me back and asked me to come back for a second interview and was pleased when that interview also went well. A few days later I received a call from 4Over making me a job offer. I was so excited! The pay was good, the hours were great and the people seemed great too. How could I turn that down?? I said yes right away. I started on March 28 and hit the ground running.
It's six months later and things are great! I have learned soooo much at my new job about an industry I had no experience with. I just had a 6 month evaluation and they say they want to keep me around. I am very much excited to be a part of a company that is growing by leaps and bounds and occasionally does some really cool stuff. Best of all, I can honestly say I love the people I work with. I know that we all have our ups and downs, but I really do look forward to coming to work and seeing these shining faces! This is by no means a glamorous job and I do have moments when I need to step away but the people make all the difference. It feels great to go to work and feel like a contributing member of a team. It's also great that I can give my 100% at work and go home. I am not stressed and overwhelmed by work while sitting on my couch at home. This has freed up sooo much time in my life that I now have time for things that matter most in life.
And now time for the thank yous. I have to say thank you to all my family who were very supportive and encouraging during this time, especially my mom who told me many times what I needed to hear. And also a thank you to all my supportive Facebook friends. Many of you were the only people I talked to during this time while I had myself holed up for the winter. Your encouragement, support and prayers everyday were greatly appreciated. A great BIG thank you and I love you to my husband Jonathan. You are always my rock during these times. Many times you could have hounded me about my lousy house keeping while I was home, but you didn't. You could have slapped me silly to get me to snap out of it, but you didn't. Instead you were always patient, encouraging and hard working. You always had faith that things would work out.  I know this will not be the only time in our lives we will face unemployment so I am certainly going to take some life lessons from this for next time.
The last thank you must go to God. Even though I didn't pray through this as much as I should have, He was always watching over us and continues to provide us with everything we need. He will always see us through the good times and bad.
Thank you all again.

What fear has done to my writing.

2011-08-23T23:18:00.000-04:00

Gosh, it seems like forever since I've blogged. Life seems gloriously busy right now. I always have scenarios that pop up I think would be great blog stories, but for some reason I always find an excuse to keep from sitting down and writing them. Sometimes it's pure laziness, but most of the time it's about being afraid to say what's on my mind.

About a year ago I became painfully aware of other people who could be reading my blog since it's open as public. I suddenly had stage fright when I would sit down to write! I managed a few posts but not the amount I really wanted to do. I started worrying about what others thought and if I was offending them. I certainly didn't want to turn anyone off by the things I would write. Unfortunately we can't please everyone, especially with the broad range of people that are reading this. On one side I am encouraged by many to keep writing, on another , I am told my blog is "to churchy" and I'm sure my terrible grammar and punctuation may turn people off too (I was only a C student). I also battle my own head when I start thinking "who wants to read what I have to say?", "Am I interesting enough to read about (if I don't have kids)?" and "Do I always have to be happy and positive in my blog?" Don't get me wrong, I love telling true stories that are just everyday scenarios and telling them in a way to make people laugh. It's my way of being transparent and reminding people to find humor in our everyday lives. But I certainly don't want to be thought of as a downer because I decided to write something that someone doesn't agree with.

As I sit here writing this I keep back spacing, second guessing what I want to write next....

The bottom line, I need to push away the fear of what others think and keep writing about the things that I am most passionate about and the thoughts that consume my head. Some days I aim to humor my audience, some days I want to uplift them and other days I simply just want to say what's on my mind.

Hopefully you will stay on board for this ride. If not.... oh well!

Homemade Ice Cream!!

2011-06-12T07:02:00.013-04:00

We were inspired!! Last weekend we got to go to a Birthday party at the Stampers. And at the party they served the best Chocolate-Peanut butter homemade ice cream. It was especially refreshing since it was so hot that weekend. While we were at the party I started thinking about our ice cream maker. The fact that we got ours as a wedding gift and still had not used it. Every year we talked about getting it out but always seemed to procrastinate. I guess for some reason, I thought it would be much more complicated then it really was, which caused the procrastination.

This probably sounds very shocking for someone who really knows me. Ice cream is actually my favorite edible thing on this planet! I have always liked ice cream, but I didn't eat that much of it as a kid. I didn't actually love it until I started working at Friendly's in 1993. Of course I loved the taste of their ice cream, but more then anything, I loved serving it. Building a sundae was like a masterpiece for me. I always tried to make them as attractive as possible and made the scoops as big as I could get away with. After a short while, my co-workers started to say my sundaes had "Sommer scoops". I actually had a few customers that wanted me to make their sundaes! The part I loved the most was presenting the sundae on my customers table. Their eyes would bug out of their heads and then a smile would light their face. The first bite would make them close their eyes. It's always flattering to a cook to see an empty plate and that is how I felt when I made my sundaes. I worked for 7 fun years at Friendly's during high school and college. When it was time to leave, I dearly missed serving my customers and making my sundaes. Now, the only person I get to wow with my sundaes is my husband. He always seems impressed when I bring him a sundae.
This is the ice cream maker hard at work for the first time spinning and spinning. Thankfully we did this outside because we ended up with a lot of water on the ground.And this is just after we pulled it out of the machine and after we added the chocolate chips. It was more like a milkshake. We later found out this was normal after we read the troubleshooting tips in the directions. It tasted wonderful at this stage but it still wasn't ready to serve, unless we wanted a milk shakeSo into the freezer it went. We kept peeking at it every couple hours and stealing a few spoonfuls off the top.And here it is! The finished product, Coffee Chocolate Chip Ice Cream. YUM! I was so surprised at how creamy and smooth it was for home made ice cream and such a simple recipe too! We now have a lot of ice cream to eat between the 2 of us. It's a challenge we're ready to take on. ;)

"If They Ask About Your Savior"

2011-03-06T17:31:00.003-05:00

After reading Facebook, it seems like everyone had a great day at church today! This must have been the day that everyone was paying attention in church and soaked in the messages given. I am one of those people that was extra attentive today and it started in our Sunday class.
In an effort to shake things up in our class, our whole class went and sat in with another class that was being instructed by Dr. Greg Ryerson. He is a wonderful teacher that provides great leadership within our church and always speaks encouraging words.
Dr. Ryerson's class was studying 1Peter 3:13-17 today and also provided us with a study outline. This passage is about always being prepared to give an answer when someone questions the hope that you have and dealing with the possible slander that is often spoken by cynics and non-believers. "It is better, if it's God's will, to suffer for doing good rather than for doing evil" (1Peter 3:17)
The title on the notes read "If They Ask About Your Savior". There are 3 points on the notes:

1) Be Confident- " Do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it. The LORD Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread" (Isaiah 8:12-13 NIV)

2) Be Calm- "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid" (John 14:27 NIV)

And the third point is the one that I identified with the most today because it was a hard reminder of exactly where Christ should be in my life. The big word was SANCTIFY: to make holy; to set apart as sacred. The notes were asking me, what parts of my life should be sanctified, set apart for Christ.

3) Be Committed- " I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20 NIV)
Practical ways to Sanctify Christ: Give him the first.....
a. first moments of every day
b. first day of every week
c. first consideration in every decision
d. first place in your life

Powerful results of sanctifying Christ:
a. You'll have a readier answer when questioned.
b. You'll have a cleaner conscience when judged.
c. You'll have a stronger endurance when harassed.

This was a great message with a great instruction guide. A reminder to keep HIM first in everything I do, even when being confronted by others.

Blueberry Pancakes for the books.

2011-01-03T19:28:00.004-05:00

Tonight I believe I made my best Pancakes to date. For some reason, pancakes always seem to be the one thing I tend to mess up. The only reason I can think of is because I usually make the box mix pancakes. They are so easy to make that I find myself doing 10 other things at the same time, resulting in burned pancakes.
So, we were at the grocery this weekend and found some fresh blueberries. I immediately felt like I was having a blueberry pancake craving. The blueberries then hopped into the cart all by themselves (I know, yeah yeah). And in the middle of my afternoon of job hunting, I found myself Googling "blueberry pancakes" and came up with this scratch recipe.
All of my experience with homemade pancakes resulted in a heavy brick like thing that really had no taste. But for some reason I felt the need for a challenge (or maybe the picture just looked really good). All the reviews seemed great and it appeared I had all the needed ingredients. So I thought I would give it a shot.
This is the recipe I found on Allrecipes.com called
"Todd's famous Blueberry Pancakes"

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp baking powder
2 tsp sugar
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/2 Tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup fresh blueberries (or frozen blueberries, thawed)

In large bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking powder and sugar.
in separate small bowl, wisk together the egg and milk. Add egg mixture to the flour mixture and mix thoroughly. If batter is too thick, continue to add 1 Tbsp at a time of extra milk until desired consistency. Batter should still be pretty thick. Stir in melted butter, then fold in the blueberries.
Let batter sit for 1 hour on counter ( a must).
Heat up griddle to med-high (or 350 degrees). Melt a pat of butter on griddle surface.
Ladle 1/4 cup batter on griddle for each cake. Turn when bubbles rise all around.
Serve with butter and warm syrup and enjoy! 1 batch makes about 8 medium pancakes.
I actually doubled this recipe so I could have some extra to freeze and have for breakfast later.
And this is the final stack! I could not believe how awesome they were. For scratch pancakes, they were actually like pillows and not bricks. The sugar adds a subtle sweetness and the blueberries add the yummy tartness. I think I drove JR crazy with my mmm mming the whole time. This recipe is definitely going in my keeper file.

Holiday "Sales"

2010-12-20T16:24:00.002-05:00

I learned a lesson in "sale" advertisements in the newspaper today.
Today was what I thought to be my last opportunity to finish my Christmas shopping since the weather will likely be bad for the rest of the week. I was pretty much done except for Jonathan's gift. I've been watching the ads, waiting for the best "sale" price to pop up on what I was looking for. Well, this Sunday's ads weren't the best but I had put it off for too long and it was now or never. I looked in other stores last week for their advertised prices, but never seemed to find the advertised "sale" price on the shelf. I would then walk out of the store frustrated because I couldn't finish my shopping. It seemed all the stores were advertising the same item for about the same price, but the item never seemed to be available when I got there.
This weeks ads had only one store advertising what I wanted and thankfully for the same price as the other stores from last weeks ads. Since I know the husband will read this post, I will need to leave the item and the certain office store anonymous. So, I made sure to hit the store today, Monday, to make sure they would still be in stock. I made sure to take the ad with me this time and thankfully I did because the store did not have their ad sitting out for people to browse.
I proceeded to search the store for the item I was looking for. Just as I was about to give up and ask for help, I found what I was looking for. I compared the item numbers to make sure they matched up to the ad I had in my hand. I then noticed that the store did not have the sale price marked next to the item in the store. In fact, the item was marked in the store $100 more then then ad. I looked up and noticed that there was a sign next to the model that said "out of stock". I was crushed and nearly had a meltdown right there in the store. I had waited too long for the best price and now I couldn't afford any of the others that were not on sale.
I continued to stand there and ponder a plan B but couldn't come up with anything else. I then looked at the item again and saw that even though the item showed as "out of stock", there were still tags left to be pulled for the item. So.....I pulled a tag. I began to plan how I was going to handle this when I took my tag to the counter for my "out of stock" item. I was preparing myself to play dumb when they would tell me that it was out of stock and then I would ask for a rain check for my item at the sale price. I thought it was pretty silly that they would be "out of stock" of an item they were just advertising the day before which is why I thought a rain check would be fare.
So I stepped up to the counter and just when she was about to take my tag, the phone rang. The girl took the call to help another customer. As she was on the phone, I began to sweat. I was nervous! I was starting to think I was going to crack under the pressure. After what seemed like forever, the girl got off the phone and took my tag and said,"hold on a minute". She went to the back counter to talk to someone with my tag in her hand. They both looked at me and then I heard her say "well...she has an ad with her". The other person nodded and then my checkout girl went to a back room and came out with the "out of stock" item in her hand. Once I got over the relief I felt for not having to put on the act, I started to feel a little manipulated by the "out of stock" sign they had by the item when I first saw it in the store. And of course I had to show the girl the ad in order for me to get the sale price. Then I said "oh wait a minute, I have a coupon". Her jaw dropped as I gave her my 10% off coupon. If I could have read her mind right then, I know she was thinking "I just took $100 off this thing, now she wants another 10% off? the nerve!" Yes folks, I had the nerve!
I then paid for my item and wished the girl a Merry Christmas.

Shopping lesson for the day: Never assume the signs in the store are correct AND always take the ad with you. Sometimes you just have to get the nerve!

You Are More

2010-12-18T18:40:00.003-05:00

As I was on the road tonight, I heard this song on the radio. A song I've heard many other times, but for some reason, I was listening more closely to the lyrics tonight.
So often I find myself wondering how it's possible that God can still love me knowing my past sins. This song reminds me that I cannot define myself by my past mistakes because I have been remade. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

You Are More by Tenth Avenue North

There's a girl in the corner
With tear stains on her eyes
From the places she's wandered
And the shame she can't hide

She says, "How did I get here?
I'm not who I once was.
And I'm crippled by the fear
That I've fallen too far to love"

But don't you know who you are,
What's been done for you?
Yeah don't you know who you are?

You are more than the choices that you've made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
You've been remade.

Well she tries to believe it
That she's been given new life
But she can't shake the feeling
That it's not true tonight

She knows all the answers
And she's rehearsed all the lines
And so she'll try to do better
But then she's too weak to try

But don't you know who you are?

You are more than the choices that you've made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
You've been remade.

You are more than the choices that you've made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
You've been remade.

'Cause this is not about what you've done,
But what's been done for you.
This is not about where you've been,
But where your brokenness brings you to

This is not about what you feel,
But what He felt to forgive you,
And what He felt to make you loved.

You are more than the choices that you've made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
You've been remade.

Clifton Mill 2010

2010-12-11T07:12:00.003-05:00

This year for Christmas, we got to do one of our favorite things, we visited Clifton Mill in Clifton, Ohio. If you have never experienced Clifton Mill, you MUST add it to your list. If you are feeling a bit sluggish this Christmas season, this is the place to go to put yourself in the Christmas spirit. Thankfully it was only cold and not super cold and this is likely to be the only decent night of the weekend before the weather moves in to keep us all indoors. Needless to say, this place was paaaaacked! But as packed as it was, people still maintained the Christmas spirit.

The first Clifton Mill light show was in 1988 which started with only 100,000 lights. They have now expanded to over 3.6 Million lights and ever since the beginning, it has become a favorite for both of our families. We don't go every year, but when we do, there is always something new that's been added. This year was no different.
The 2 of us in front of The Water Wheel of Lights. After trying to take our own pictures of the 2 of us, someone offered to take it for us. LOVE this picture!

That's me.

These are the lights on the covered bridge. Since we were here 2 years ago, they have since added "The Covered Bridge Light Show". A motion light show done to the Trans Siberian Orchestra classic song, Christmas in Sarajevo. On the weekends they do this show every half hour. All the lights go out through the whole mill and the show begins on the bridge. Very awesome.

This is "The Waterfall of Lights".

A picture of the 7 story mill all lit up.

Part of the animated miniature village of Clifton. This is a miniature version of the Clifton Mill at Christmas.

This is also something new that has been added since the last time we were here. This is part of the miniature village. A moving Ohio State game! You can see the team in the back playing the game and the band in the front spelling out O-H-I-O, complete with a little man popping up to dot the I.

Great times at The Clifton Mill.

Old Fashioned Chicken N Dumplings

2010-12-09T21:02:00.003-05:00

Two years ago, I was introduced to Old Fashioned Chicken N Dumplings at Thanksgiving Dinner with Jonathan's brother and family. As soon as we got home that weekend I became obsessed with mastering the old fashioned dumpling. My previous tasting of Chicken N Dumplings consisted of a batter like dough that was dolloped and steamed on top of a chicken stew. Don't get me wrong, I still love this version of Chicken N Dumplings (especially when Carol makes it), but I was determined to learn how to make an old fashioned rolled Dumpling.
So my obsession began this time, 2 years ago. I was able to get the recipe for the dumplings from Steve's family and I was able to use a traditional chicken stock recipe for the broth. In the last 2 years, I have made this recipe enough and manipulated it enough now to say that I have mastered it to what I think is a GREAT Old Fashioned Chicken N Dumplings. I am now officially ready to debut my recipe with the hopes that someone else may have their interest peaked enough to give it a try. Keep in mind that everything in the broth can be modified to your taste but the dumplings should be made to the recipe. The key to this recipe is to have a very flavorful broth and to roll the Dumplings to just the right thickness. Do not be intimidated by the wordiness of my recipe, it really is quite simple. Below is the recipe and the finished product that was made tonight.
Old Fashioned Chicken N Dumplings
Stock------
3-4 lbs. of chicken parts or 1 whole chicken, rinsed thoroughly.
4 Celery tops with leaves, rinsed (the leaves have the most flavor)
1 large carrot, peeled and cut into thirds
1- Med. Onion, peeled and cut in half
1/2 tsp minced Garlic
2 Bay Leaves
3 Tbsp SALTED Butter
1 tsp pepper
1-tsp salt
2-tsp Chicken bullion Granules (optional for those watching salt intake)

Put Chicken in large stock pot and fill pot with cold water until water comes about 1" over chicken. Add all other Stock ingredients except Chicken Granules.
Bring stock to a rolling boil on high, then reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour. Remove pot from heat then remove chicken to cool for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, strain all other ingredients from the broth and discard, leaving only broth. Add Chicken Granules to broth and stir to dissolve. Taste broth at this point to test the salt and pepper. Continue to season to taste if necessary. When chicken is cool enough to handle, remove and discard all skin and bones and begin to pull chicken meat apart with hands into bite size pieces. Add pulled chicken back to broth.

Dumplings-----
2 cups All-Purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3 Tbsp SALTED butter
1 cup milk

Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add cold butter and cut in with a pastry blender until small crumbs form (cutting the butter in with 2 knives will also work).
Add milk and stir with a fork until a sticky dough ball forms. Turn dough out on to a wide floured surface. Lightly flour the top of the dough ball and a rolling pin.
Begin to roll out dough, and adding only enough flour as you go to keep from sticking to rolling pin and counter. Roll dough to about 1/8" thick (when dough cooks, it will plump to about 1/4").
Take a pizza cutter and begin to cut dough into long 3/4" wide strips and place on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper. Add a second layer of wax paper if necessary for a second layer of dough strips. When dough is all on cookie sheet, place in freezer to firm.
This can all be done while the broth is simmering.

When the chicken has been added back to the pot, return pot back to burner and bring to a boil. As soon as the broth starts to boil, the dumplings can now be added. Pull dumplings from freezer and begin snapping each strip 1 at a time into 1 1/2"-2" pieces and adding 1 piece at a time to the broth. Stir lightly. Once all pieces are added, reduce heat to a light simmer and cover pot. Continue to simmer for 20 minutes. Old Fashioned Chicken N Dumplings is now ready to serve!
Hopefully this VERY inexpensive comfort food will keep your family warm on a cold winter day.

Merry Christmas!

Good Bye ol' Ranger Boy

2010-10-29T20:56:00.003-04:00

A few months ago, Jonathan stated that he was now interested in selling his 1988 Ranger Hot Rod. It really surprised me because I know how much time and money he has put into the thing. He drove it home in 1992 to his parents house as a 4 cylinder and after about a year it ended up with a V8 engine that sounded pretty mean. With lots of help from family and friends over the years he was able to do quite a bit of work on the truck .
My memories of this truck start in August of 2003 when Jonathan pulled up to my parents house to pick me up for our first date. I remember looking out my window wondering what all the racket was. I think my dad was a little bit impressed when he eventually heard what all he had done to the truck. Jonathan whisked me off for Pizza and a cruise through the Taylorsville Dam. It was definitely a rough but fun ride and of course as guys do, he had to show off a bit...LOL! It has made many skid marks through the years and created lots of late night noise.

A few weeks ago, one of Jonathan's connections called him and said that a guy was looking for an older Ranger to fix up. Jonathan jumped on it. He sold the truck tonight. Below is a picture of the truck loaded up.
I forgot to mention that we did keep the most important parts of the truck. The heart (motor) and Transmission were pulled this week before it was loaded up. Maybe one day we will get to transplant these items to a new body and bring a another car to life.

And here it is being driven off. We had to keep watching as he drove down the road out of sight. A small tear came to my eye as I began to think of the movie Herbie. A rough looking truck that may one day be turned into a race truck. The new owner has promised to stop by after he has it all fixed up and maybe we will get to post some new pictures one day. Hopefully we will get to see him at the track on a Saturday night in all his new glory.

Garden Check 2010

2010-07-18T19:41:00.004-04:00

We are now about 2/3 the way through our garden season. Over all I would say this year has been good so far but VERY weedy. I have also had to do a lot of watering this year since it has been so dry. The rain we had earlier last week was a God send. I am just hoping now that the forcasted rain for this week holds true, otherwise it's another long week of watering.
Above is my corn. We opted for the Silver Queen this year rather then our usual Chubby Checker from the last 2 years. We should have our first round ready to come off at the end of this week.

And this is my Watermelon patch. this is only 3 plants (hills). I am a bit nervous on these. I'm not sure what to expect when. The plants are getting huge but I have not seen any melons starting yet. We have seen the blooms for the past 3 weeks, but not much more then that. I am hoping we see a little more action by the end of this week (fingers crossed).

And these are my 2 Zucchini plants. I was certain that since the plants were pretty small, we would not see anything on them this year. Boy was I wrong. There were many blooms on both plants. We went from 0 to suddenly 2 were ready to pick after last weeks soaking rain. I am certain there are many more to come.

And here they are!!

And this is what I made with the small one today. Baked Zucchini Chips. Not to bad, but I think I prefer them cooked on the grill. Maybe next weekend we will get around to that.

I am now going through my recipes trying to find my Grandmothers Zucchini Cookie recipe that are definitely on the cooking agenda for this year.

The 5th of July with the Kiddos

2010-07-05T20:26:00.005-04:00

This past weekend I guess you could say that Jonathan and I were pretty low key or uneventful. Jonathan was not feeling well at all last week, so this weekend was a much needed rest for the 2 of us. He is slowly starting to feel a bit normal, but it's very hard to ever feel fully rested when you work third shift.
We spent this afternoon at Dad and Carol's house for our 4th of July cookout with the family (only we celebrated on the 5th). It was a great day and VERY hot! We managed to find some shade to relax in while we rotated Corn Hole and Hillbilly Golf games.
This is Max and his Momma Betsy. Max is getting sooo big! He turns 2 next month.

And here is Master Zander waiting for his lunch and as you can see, he most always has a smile on his face. He turns 1 next month also, the day before Max's Birthday. They are 364 days apart!

Max with his new lawn mower. All the kids took there turn doing there share of the mowing and had fun. Hmmmm maybe we should remind them of this in about 15 years or so.

Max also has this thing for weed wacking. He will pick up one of his toys at random and hold it like a weed wacker and act like he is wacking away, complete with sound effects and a sweeping motion! LOL! This was completely hilarious and of course I did not have my camera with me.

I came out onto the back deck to see 3 of the kids attempting to figure out the Hillbilly Golf. This was pretty darn cute.

You can see above Jeremy who is turning 3 next month also and Abby who is 4.

Yes that's right folks, we had a 1, 2, 3 and a 4 year old all together in the same house.

This is one of my attempts to get the kids together for a picture.

Max, Zander and Abby here. Notice Abby trying to keep her baby brother on the couch. So cute.

And this one is Jeremy, Zander and Abby.

And this is the last and final attempt to get them all together.

"Great idea Aunt Sommer". Carol compared this to herding cats! LOL!!

Notice every one's expression. These will be pictures to laugh about later on down the road.

And this is Max and his daddy saying goodbye after a long hot day of playing with his cousins.

This was a great, much needed family day. As usual, the house was filled with madness and mayhem, but I wouldn't want it any other way.

Hopefully we get to do this in a few more weeks as all of these birthdays roll around.

Abe S. Yoder Sr. family reunion

2010-06-28T20:05:00.009-04:00

This past weekend, I finally got to attend my very first Yoder reunion. The last one was only 3 weeks before Jonathan and I got married, which was not a good time for us to be traveling so far. I had to wait another 3 years before the next reunion would roll around, which meant I was more then eager to go this time. It was a weekend for all who attended to remember. It was a record year for attendance of at least 219 people on Saturday (this is only counting the people that signed the register).
Our weekend started on Thursday afternoon. I only worked a half day and then we were on he road by 130pm with Jonathan's parents. Since we needed to be in Chambersburg, PA early on Friday, we opted to only drive half way on Thursday and stayed the night in Washington , PA. We were up and out the door by 730am on friday and arrived in Chambersburg at 1130am. There we met Jonathan's Aunts, Uncles and Grandmother who had a nice chicken supper prepared for us all. Grandma had been wanting to cook us all supper for some time and this was the first opportunity she has had in a very long time. We also got to see her new apartment since she has relocated to Chambersburg. When supper and visiting was done, we hopped in the car and drove another 2 hours to Belleville, PA. For those who have followed my blog from the beginning, you know how much I just love going to Big Valley (where Belleville is located). Friday evening we went to the Mennonite High School for a bit of visiting and a "few snacks" with some of the Yoders already in town.
Saturday we arrived to the Home Farm at 9am. The home farm is the place where Jonathan's Great Grandfather, Abraham S Yoder Sr. and his wife lived and raised there 13 children. Jonathan's Grandfather , Abe Jr, was #5. I really cannot describe how AMAZING this day was without the pictures I have posted below:

This is a picture of only part of their garden facing the horse pasture. I have developed a great love of gardens lately and Belleville certainly has many beautiful gardens to drive by. As we were driving, it was all I could do to keep from jumping out of the car and run up to every ones door to ask about their garden. (I decided it was best to restrain myself)

This is a picture of the 2 houses on the property. Both houses are huge. The house closest in the picture is the main house. The house in the back is the grandparents house ( Dawdi Haus). A separate house where the Grandparents move into (sometimes straight from the main house) where they can be tended closely by there children and grandchildren.

A beautiful horse that Jonathan made friends with.

Cutting the fresh bread for the bean soup later for lunch.

Some of the women gathering to make the 250'ish Half Moon Pies. This is a pie crust rolled flat with apple butter spread over, folded in half and sealed. Kinda like a pie pocket. You can see some of them above that are already assembled. There were about 5-6 women working on these in the room.

Getting the Apple Pies ready to put in the Hearth by basting them with Buttermilk.

Lining up with the pies as they are putting them in the OLD outdoor oven one at a time. It seems i forgot to put in the pictures of the pies as they came out of the oven, but believe me when I tell you they were beautiful. It only took them about 5 minutes to cook in the oven since the oven was so hot. All of the pies were great accept for the one that got forgotten and stayed in a tad bit longer and ended up pretty dark and crisp.

They also put the Half Moon Pies in the Hearth oven also. These were also cooked quickly and came out just perfect.

This is a picture of the Amish Peanut butter that was made and the Smear Kase- a homemade spreadable cheese that tastes similar to Mozzarella cheese and is commonly spread on the Half Moon Pies. Both were DE-LISH!! I also forgot the pics of the Amish Bean soup which was yummy also. It wasn't at all what I expected but still very yummy. Also served was Lebanan Bologna and cheese tray with homemade rolls, Church Pickles, Olives, Apple Pie, Moon Pies...... Oh my! I miss it already.

This is a picture of the barn that we did most of the visiting/eating/singing in.

Auction Time! This year and the previous reunion, they did an auction fund raiser to apply to the reunion fund. These are items that the family donates, most are hand crafted or heirloom items from generations of family. Many books, crafts, baked goods, woodwork, quilts, afghans. Someone even donated a week at there vacation home in the mountains of Franklin, Tennessee. Furnished with a pool! Unfortunately we did not bring that kind of cash with us :(

Some of the money was also donated to the families of elder Yoder's that were in the hospital and could not make it to the reunion.
You can see above my crossed stitch Roly Poly Snowmen Coasters on the Auction block.

Below is the one auction item we bought. a 4 pack of Whoopie Pies!! we went crazy and bought them for $15.00. There were only 3 packs of Whoopie pies up for auction and we got the one that was ALL Chocolate! People got a good chuckle over the bidding war that ensued. I'm not sure who I was bidding against but I was determined to keep my hand up! Jonathan and I are savoring every morsel.

Man, I gotta learn how to make them myself! This will be one of my goals this summer....

Milking Time! This is a working dairy farm.

A brand new Calf just born sometime during this day with Momma standing by. Sadly, momma is whisked away shortly after giving birth and the calf becomes bottle/bucket fed.

Sigh........ such is farm life.

This is a picture of the fly over. I'm not sure if this was a family member or a neighbor doing this but it was sooo much fun. He did several fly overs dropping bags of candy for the kids. He ended up buzzing the barn with his last circle round.

This is a picture of the kids scrambling for the candy as it hit the ground. HEADS UP!

The last part of the evening was the talent show/ singing. Above is Jonathan's uncle Titus playing a hymn on his harmonica. He was Amazing!

I feel terrible on this one... I'm not sure who these people were but they were GREAT! They sang a great Folk style song that had everyone smiling.

Alumni from the BMS (Belleville Mennonite School) singing once again!

Jonathan's great Uncle Ben reciting a poem.

The Shetterly girls singing an Irish Blessing for us all just before we left for the evening.

The once quartet is now a trio. Jonathan's dad singing with his brothers, which is always a treat. We definitely missed Grandpa Abe.

I got to hear many new hymns that night, one of which was God is Love. Everyone was singing in english and just when we thought the song was over, half of the crowd continued singing the song in German, 'Gott ist die Liebe". I think it brought a tear to most everyone that was unable to continue singing.

They ended up getting each family together representing each child of Abe Yoder Sr.

This is a picture of 4 generations of the Abe Yoder Jr Family that came to the reunion.

Hopefully I managed to get all my facts right with my story and I do apologize for any spelling errors. I do welcome any fact corrections as I am still learning about my new family.

WOW! what an amazing weekend. Due to a voted change, I now only have to wait another 2 more years for my next Yoder reunion!

Back up!!

2010-04-26T21:14:00.002-04:00

After about a month and a half of being down from my blog, we are back up and running!
We were putting up with a sloooooow computer that wouldn't load any of our applications properly. I finally had enough yesterday and broke down and called Time Warner. I was certain they would give us a hard time and say they couldn't help us, but they didn't! As it turned out, our router was bad. They ran a few tests for us and told us how to fix it. Yay for Time Warner! They got the gold star for the month.
We have sooo much coming up this summer and hope to do a bit more blogging once things kick into gear.
At the moment we are spending time in the yard getting some new flowerbeds ready along with prepping the garden (Jonathan is at least). Jonathan usually does the early grunt work of prepping the garden, while I usually maintain it through the season: watering, weeding etc.(he helps sometimes too). This year we are planning to grow our usual Corn and with the extra 4 feet added this year, I am looking forward to trying my hand at Water Melon and Zucchini. If all goes well, we should have plenty to share.
I will keep everyone posted on our progress. Hoping to have pictures of the new flower beds just as soon as we get them filled and planted.

Lot's of love to all our family and friends :) We miss you all dearly and can't wait to share this exciting summer with you.

From Snow to Pre-Spring

2010-03-07T18:31:00.004-05:00

This picture above is the first day of our snow storm on Friday 2/5/10. My work let us leave early that day and this picture was taken just after I got home.

And this is Saturday morning. A 5' drift on our front walk and nearly up against the garage door.

I am 5'3". This is how tall the drift was.

This is one of our neighbors across the street. He is standing ON TOP of the snow drift trying to dig his way to his front door.

And here is my snow man. Hard at work doing our driveway. Once he was done, he ventured out to many of our neighbors. He went out 3 different days and loved every minute of it. He even had to pull someone out of the ditch with his truck just across the road in this picture.

And this is Pepper the cat discovering snow for the first time. Eventually he started batting it back and forth and even managed a few good mouth fulls.

And now we flash forward to today. We had one very beautiful pre-spring weekend. The sun was out all weekend with warming temperatures. Today we stopped at DQ and headed down to the Englewood Reserve and take in a bit of nature and sunshine. Any other day this would not be an impressive picture, but today the scenery was quite uplifting. There was still ice on much of the water, but that certainly did not seem to bother any of the ducks and geese.

And here is the sunshine shot. Yes, the shine on our glasses is the sun. We sat for about half an hour on a park bench by the water just letting the warmth of the sun hit our faces. After dealing with a nearly depressing winter, it's hard to believe something so basic can be so rejuvenating and provide us with so much hope.

Yes God IS good.

Adorable pics

2010-02-02T20:06:00.004-05:00

I was looking through some of our pictures in our camera, when I came across these adorable shots. These are just a few from when we got to babysit baby Zander again just a few weeks ago. He was a little bit bigger then the last time we had him and sooo much fun!
You can see above that Jonathan has nap time under control. Pepper the cat was insistent on maintaining his position.

We had The Gaither Gospel Hour playing on TV. I couldn't resist this shot as Zander stopped what he was doing and was focused on the TV.

Too CUTE!!!

Checking in on The Boys

2010-01-10T20:16:00.003-05:00

We spent this afternoon visiting with Jonathan's parents for Sunday supper. Since we had all of this snow, we decided to take the camera to get some shots of the boys, Brownie and Blackie playing in the snow. This picture above is Brownie checking on us during Supper. Just making sure we saved him some left overs.

Brownie is surprisingly agreeable to this! He will take any attention he can get. He especially loves it if someone is scratching his belly.

This one is one of my favorites. Both dogs here now loving on Jonathan.

Hopefully this winter isn't too hard on Blackie. We are pretty certain this could be his last winter (of course we said this 2 years ago too). But he is living to be a ripe old man of 13 and showing his age. He now gets the extra special love and attention.

Let It Snow

2009-12-19T08:15:00.003-05:00

We woke up this morning to find out first winter wonderland of the season. And of course I had to take a picture. Very happy this is happening on a Saturday and not on my work day. A great day to be looking out my window.

Jonathan's little helper........

2009-12-07T06:09:00.003-05:00

This weekend, Jonathan decided put up a few lights on our outside fence. Before he could do that, he needed to test all of his light that were packed away in the attic. As you can see, Pepper the cat was only trying to be helpful.....as usual. He began batting at the lights, then the chewing and at one point he had his head inside the box sitting in front of him. What a goof ball!

As Jonathan was testing his lights, Pepper thought it would be a good time to look out at the neighbors. I caught him just before he jumped off.

So far, I have only seen him climb the tree once this year (but the season is still young). Sometimes he leans on some of the branches like he is ready to jump, be we seem to catch him with the squirt bottle before he does that. Jonathan found 1/2 of a glass icicle from the tree on the floor this morning. I thought I had heard him making some noise in the tree through the night. Suddenly the noise stopped and the cat went running. We woke up this morning and found the evidence. Needless to say, the cat went to hide under the bed as soon as he saw Jonathan with 1/2 an icicle in his hand.

As aggravating as this is, we still find ourselves laughing about it all. He is pretty stink'in cute when he falls asleep under the tree with the warm lights. We just hope the Christmas tree makes it until the end of the season.

Guys and their Guns

2009-12-07T05:51:00.002-05:00

This year for Thanksgiving, we headed back down to Southern Indiana to Visit Jonathan's brother Steve and his family. It was a little smaller crowd from last year, but we all still had a good time. When we got there, We were pleased to find out that they were deep frying a turkey. It was the first fried turkey for both of us. It was mm mm good. Aside from the obvious danger of frying a turkey and the health risk, I am not sure why anyone would eat it any other way.
The guys decided they wanted to get some target practice in on Saturday just before we left. The above picture is Jonathan.

This is Steve.

and this is James.

I personally don't care for guns, I just let the guys have their fun.

All I can say is, I would never wanna break into their house.

Adventures in Babysitting

2009-11-08T19:33:00.002-05:00

This past Friday, we had the pleasure of attending the wedding renewal service for my cousin Terrance and his wife Catrina. They were celebrating their 5th wedding anniversary and wanted to celebrate by renewing there vows. It was actually quite beautiful. They each wrote there own vows, which was a great chance for them to reflect on the past five years. This brought me and a few others to tears. It was a verbal commitment to God, themselves and the family that they are choosing to stay together through thick and thin.
On Saturday, while Terrance and Catrina where having a night away without there kids, Jonathan and I got to babysit 3 month old Alexzander (Zander). When Terrance initially asked me to do it, I jumped at the opportunity. I knew this would be a good time for us to practice our baby skills. I haven't babysat anything that small in about 8 years and certainly never overnight. Jonathan had a bit of experience from his niece and nephews from a while back. Due to his Reflux condition, which makes him fussy with extra spit up, I knew Zander would put us to the test. Fortunately, whatever Zander threw our way (pardon the pun), we were able to handle.

Above is Jonathan doing the 5pm feeding.

Some of you already know how good and comfortable my husband is around babies. I knew this too, but was still amazed at how good he was. Most men are very nervous and awkward around babies, but not Jonathan. He never hesitated one bit. He was even up with me for the 4 am feeding.

On the second try, we were finally able to get him to bed at 11pm. His swing is the only place that he will sleep and it must be moving at all times. He slept untill 345am and was up untill 6am, then slept until 945am.

This was a great experience fore both Jonathan and I as a couple. We worked as a team, effortlessly. I realize that when our time comes to start our family, it won't always be peaches and cream, but I feel totally confident that we can do this well, together.

Bear Creek Weekend

2009-10-31T22:02:00.002-04:00

Finally, I am now getting around to blogging about our Bear Creek weekend that is now sadly 2 weeks past.
The two weeks leading up to this trip, were very over whelming at work to say the least. I found it very hard to get myself motivated for this trip, which I never have a problem getting motivated for our trips. I knew that if I cancelled this trip, I would have broken Jonathan's heart. Cancelling was not a option. I would have to somehow get myself caught up as best as I could and just deal with the fact that some things would have to wait until I came back.

We headed out late Friday morning. We were headed to Bear Creak Resort and Ranch, in East Sparta, Ohio. It was just south of Canton Ohio. Our original intention was to camp in a small 1 room cabin and do all of our cooking outside. But when the weather decided to get kinda cold that week, we opted to upgrade our cabin to one that was fully furnished to make the weekend a little bit more enjoyable. We no longer called it camping, rather, Cabining.We were definitely glad we upgraded when it became too cold to sit up late next to our campfire.
This is a picture of our wonderful cabin. it could have slept 6 people, 2 bunk beds and 1 double. It also had a fully furnished bathroom and kitchen. If I had known that it would be THAT furnished, I would have brought better food to make some great meals.
Off to the left you can see a picnic table. About 40 feet behind that table, we had a snake "incident" (details in a moment)

Saturday morning we headed out to the ATV trails about 1 mile down the road from our campground. It was a VERY muddy ride (see exhibit A above) given all the rain we had prior to that weekend. It was a pretty nice place and we actually found some trails that we felt comfortable riding. The mud always brings out the die hard riders, the ones that really tear it up. We tried our best to steer clear of these guys and I'm pretty sure they could tell we were amateurs. We were just out for a Sunday drive and they were there to mess around.

Is it a boy or a girl?? Sooooo just kidding!!! This is actually the trail map they gave us for the ATV riding!!! This meant that we really never knew what we were driving into. We were forced through some terrain that we probably wouldn't have gone through had we known. One of the scariest things for me is heading down a trail and getting to a point that you want to turn around and go back, but you have no where to turn and you have to just drive right through it .

Once we got a feel for the place, we really did have a good and muddy time

Saturday night we decided to do the trail horse back riding, which was just walking distance from our cabin. It was just Jonathan and I and the guide. It was only the second time riding a horse for the both of us. I rode the horse above which was Nixon. Nixon was the hungry one. He would try to be sneaky buy suddenly grabbing at the brush for snacks.

Jonathan got to ride Bell. Bell was the day dreamer. She was easily distracted and didn't seem to want to keep up with Dolly (the guides horse) and Nixon. I was always hearing Jonathan talking to the horse as if it was a 2-way conversation. After all the kicking, pulling and tugging he did, the only thing he had left was bargaining. He did manage to resist name calling though. LOL!!

Jonathan taking a picture of me on my horse with my goofy hat. It was really cold!!

This is a great shot of the beautiful sunset and Fall trees while on our ride. Me and the guide ahead. Just after this picture was taken is about the time that Bell became really distracted.

On Sunday we had company. My dad and step-mother Carol just happened to be in Millersberg that weekend which was only about an hour out of their way to come see us on their way home. Also, we got to see Dan and April again who also live about an hour away the other direction. We all got together for lunch at our cabin.

Above is Jonathan cooking our burgers and hot dogs over the campfire. He did a great job!! Thanks to April for bringing us some great hamburgers.

In this picture you will also see Carol (now leading into the snake story). When Dad and Carol got there, dad decided he was going to find some small firewood to help us with our fire. Dad headed into the woods behind our cabin. Carol and I started grabbing small sticks too and began following my dad into the woods. Carol was behind when she suddenly grabbed my arm and said "OH BOY" and then pointed. She and I both were standing about 3 feet away from a SNAKE!!!
I took one glance and about a second later I screamed, threw what sticks I had in the air and began running. Carol was ditto to that. Dad didn't believe us at first until he found it himself. And as guys do, he started poking at it with a stick to notice that it was already injured. Of course he decided to pickup it up with the stick to attempt to show us. That doesn't go so well as Carol and I continue to scream and run even farther away. As Carol and I do the Heebie Jeebie Dance, Dad decides to put it down. It was a relatively small snake and probably nothing more then a Garter snake, but it was enough to scare us both.

Thankfully I was able to laugh about this pretty quick and tried not to be too creeped out buy what was behind our cabin.

Above is Dan and April. They also brought both the boys for a visit with us.

Dad and Carol ended up leaving in the afternoon, while Dan, April and the boys decided to stay with us until later in the evening. We all headed to the over sized playground just walking distance from our cabin. We ALL ended up goofing off and having a blast on this playground. But some things I don't think were meant for adults. I have some really goofy pictures of us all. Above is a picture of April spinning Morgan on the Merry-Go-Round.

I can honestly say that Jonathan and I had a blast that weekend. I have never laughed so hard as I did Sunday when the family was with us. I would really love to get the family together more often for more fun times like this. We definitely made some really great memories.

Hog Roast weekend, 2009

2009-10-11T20:11:00.003-04:00

This weekend has been yet another busy fall weekend. Saturday was the 23rd annual Swigart Hog Roast at Swigart Park. It was another great year for the books. The usual Hog with all the many side dishes brought by all the guests. Hayrides, bonfire, hot cider, Marshmallows, volleyball, Hillbilly Golf, hiking, fishing. So many things to do. The best part is getting to visit with the families. This is about the only time of year that many of us see each other, which means lots to catch up on.
This year was my nephew Max's very first Hog Roast. Once he warmed up to the crowd, he let loose. They let him down to run and maaaaan did he!! Of all things, he seemed most drawn to the mud holes. Thankfully they managed to catch him before he could do a splash dive..
This is Max with his Daddy on his first Hog Roast Hay Ride. Pretty sure he liked it.

My two best girls again. Karma, 7 (left) and Karizma,9. Getting so big, sooo fast.

Today I made my first Pumpkin Pie, freshly cut from a pumpkin. I think it turned out ok, but we can't try it until tomorrow when it's cooled. I also tackled my first homemade pie crust. I'm a bit nervous about that one to. It's not exactly the prettiest, that's for sure

The hardest part was getting the pumpkin cut. But cooking it and milling it wasn't too bad at all.

I plan on rushing home tomorrow just so we can enjoy our pie!

Operation Applesauce 2009

2009-10-03T21:56:00.002-04:00

For those who have followed my blog for the past 3 years, you know that the Fall season is always my favorite time of year. This year is no different. We have been to a few festivals already, next weekend we have our family hog roast and we even have a fall camping trip scheduled.
But today it was Operation Applesauce. We made our way to Brumaugh Fruit Farm tonight to pick up our annual bags of apples. I was a bit late this year and missed out on my beloved Paula Red Apples (except this year I knew what to expect). We opted for the Jona Gold apples. It was the only apple they had bagged up that said "good as sauce". I must say the the Jona Golds were delicious! Very juicy and sweet.
This year, Operation Applesauce was a team effort. Thanks to Jonathan adding his hands to the process, the job went twice as fast. We now look forward to fresh sauce all year around.

"Alive Again"

2009-09-18T23:15:00.003-04:00

I have been eagerly hoping that this song currently playing, "Alive Again" by Matt Maher would make it to the music Website that I use for this blog.
This Album isn't even out yet and I have heard this track on the radio a few times already. I even posted the acoustic version on Facebook because I love it so much. I always love to hear such powerful songs on KLOVE in the morning on my way to work. They seem to give me a great pick me up before I start my day. I might be in trouble though if they decide to play Matthew West's song "The Motions" back to back with Matt Mahers song " Alive Again". If I were driving, I'm sure I would have to pull over.

Congratulations Dan and April !!!

2009-09-17T20:30:00.006-04:00

This past weekend Jonathan and I, along with many others from our family, headed out to Columbiana, Ohio (eastern Ohio) for the wedding of my step-brother Dan and his new wife April. They finally tied the knot on Saturday after being together for several years. We are all very happy for them. I am particularly happy to have yet another great sister added to our family to help keep these rambunctious guys in line.
I feel our family has truly been blessed. God has provided each of us with a perfect spouse that only HE could find. We are all blessed to have spouses that have brought out the best in us.
Below are some pictures of our great weekend.
Above, Dan manning the grill for the rehearsal dinner.

some of the other great food for dinner. yes, that is about 20-30 pounds of potato salad!

The beautiful bride April, just before she walked down the aisle.

This is the Jr. groomsman Noah and the Jr. bridesmaid, Erin

Sorry, I couldn't take any pictures during the ceremony since Jonathan and I were actually in the wedding.

Above is my favorite picture. This is the bride and groom singing to each other during there first dance together.

The Maid of Honor, Amanda giving her speech.

Best man, Chris "toph" giving his speech.

Jonathan and I in our wedding duds. I had to get at least one shot. We haven't been this dressed up since our wedding day.

I caught Terrance and Catrina goofing off. That is new baby Zander in her arms.

This is Flower Girl Abby cutting a rug along with Dabne.

Love this one too! this is Jonathan and I with my Dad, Nick, Betsy and Max.

That's us again

This is Morgan. He is all business when it comes to his cake!

This is only one half of the cookie bar!!

Some of the girls were ready to dance!!

Camping, Richmond style

2009-08-24T20:18:00.003-04:00

This past weekend, Jonathan and I went camping at the KOA in Richmond, Indiana. We were looking for a weekend away without the long drive.
The first place we looked was a bit out of our budget this time which lead us to Richmond. About $40 cheaper and about 1/3 the size. It was small but comfy and ended up being exactly what we needed. The only downfall was the weather which kept us from being able to swim.

The view from our camp sight. All the tent sights were around the pond which is very different from most campgrounds.

Our first time out using our tent. Jonathan did a great job. I was the lovely assistant.

We had a tent site with electric hook up. We took advantage of this with our electric griddle. We had 2 mornings of really yummy breakfasts.

The final product. MMMMM I think it was one of my best. Not sure why I don't use our griddle more often.

Jonathan's brother Steve was headed into town for a visit on Saturday. We invited him and the kids to stop by the campground for a lunch of Smokies over the fire. Pretty sure they liked that.

Daniel with his mega deformed marshmallow. This is what happens after you let it burn too long. He went to grab it off the stick and it pretty much dropped to the ground in ashes.

Jonathan and I stopping on our hike for a quick picture.

A New Door

2009-08-19T21:54:00.002-04:00

Since Jonathan is now laid off again, he has been doing a few things around the yard and house. One if his "to do" jobs was to put in a new storm door for our front door. Since the side garage door was warping, we took the old front storm door and put it in as the side door. We then bought a new front door. When we were making our selection at Menard's this past weekend, we had to think of the cat. We opted for one that goes to the floor so Mr. Pepper the cat could see out side for the first time without having to hop on the coffee table.

As you can see, he has adjusted well. I think he has claimed this spot as his own. We now have to step over him at the door.

Max's 1st Birthday

2009-08-09T20:42:00.005-04:00

Today we celebrated My nephew Max's 1st birthday. It was a great but HOT day to celebrate with our family along with my sister-in-laws family at her parents house.
There were hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill along with a buffet of other beautiful foods.
Max was adorable as usual but maybe a bit overwhelmed with so many people. He had a great day and made out like a bandit with his Birthday presents.
Below are some of the great pics I got today.
This is Max greeting every one as they came through the door for the party. That's Mommy behind him getting one heck of a workout today chasing him up and down the steps.

Max just kick'in it in his swing.

He loooooves his swing.

Grandma getting her hugs in.

It's time for presents!!

Hey look what I got!! My best friend Sully has one of these too!! cool!!

Hey! look what my Aunt Sommer and Uncle Jonathan got me!! It's an Elmo airplane riding toy. Complete with a spinning propeller that lights up and lots of sound effects that mom will just LOOOOVE!!

Cool! my very own cake to dive into.

Wait a minute, what's all over me?? get it off!! GET IT OFF OF MEEE!!!

Max's really cute cake

And to finish the day, my favorite, Homemade Vanilla Ice cream. Ahhh. the best.

This is just a cool picture that I had to share. While we were on I-70 heading home from the party, we passed a caravan of Indy Car racing rigs. We saw a rig for each: Danica Patrick, Tony Kanaan, Hideki Matoh and Marco Andretti. And of course since they were really hauling, I asked Jonathan to go 80 MPH so I could get this shot above. (The things they do for us. Thanks Babe) I couldn't miss this shot of my Girl, Danica.

Roxbury Weekend

2009-08-06T13:42:00.004-04:00

This past weekend I experienced another first. It was my first time going to a Roxbury Camp Meeting in PA. It was a perfect opportunity to go and meet up with Jonathan's PA family, since we haven't seen them in about a year.

I guess I still think of my self as a new believer (relatively speaking). The camp meeting was a new and enjoyable experience for me. It was awesome to be in a room filled with people who actually want to be there. People Who are passionate about the Lord and want to to serve Him. We got to see 3 different speakers while we were there, all where different and inspirational. I even got to go to my first Spanish speaking with English translation service, which was very interesting. My absolute favorite is always the music. It's amazing what 1000 people sound like when they come together and sing. I am normally a bit shy singing out in our home church. But at Roxbury, everyone is singing so loud, that I could sing as loud and as off key as I wanted to and no one could hear me (except for God and maybe Jonathan). Even when Jonathan gets to sing as loud as he wants, can hold a right good tune. I was the most moved when we all sang Days of Elijah. I'm pretty sure there wasn't a single person sitting in there seat.

I am definitely looking forward to our next opportunity to go to Roxbury Camp.

A big thanks goes to Jonathan's Uncle Allen. His generosity was greatly appreciated.

Jonathan's parents standing with his Grandmother, Uncle Titus and Aunt Charlotte, Uncle Allen and his lady friend, Phyllis.

I thought this shot looked kinda futuristic. Jonathan took this one when we were driving through one of the tunnels

A great shot of a beautiful sky with the wind turbines in the background.

Man, I just love PA!!

Moon gazing

2009-07-25T22:52:00.002-04:00

After Jonathan and I got home, Jonathan said he wanted to get the telescope out tonight.
This would be the first time that we have used it for more then watching the sheriff when he pulls people over on St Rt 49. LOL!!
It ended up being a great night. We watched the Crescent Moon go from white to yellow. Also, I had no idea that we would actually be able to see the craters on the moon as well as we could. I had myself a bit creeped out thinking I might see something move up there.
I can now hardly wait for the next full moon!! Should be pretty awesome.

Tomato Plant?

2009-07-21T20:04:00.002-04:00

We seem to have a mystery plant growing in our garden. I have noticed that smaller versions of this plant have been popping up in our garden. Well, this one popped in just the right place. Just to be curious, I decided to let it grow since it had plenty of room. The bigger it got, the more it started to look like a tomato plant. After looking at the plant today, I am more convinced that this is indeed a tomato plant.

Due to my lack of gardening knowledge, I have felt for the past year and a half like I have been wing'in it. Just sticking seeds and plants in the ground and hoping they would grow.

I now have a new first in my gardening experience. I was at work yesterday when the light bulb went off with my answer to the mystery tomato plant.

It seems that the rotten/yucky Roma tomatoes from last year, that got tossed back into the garden as compost, are now actually starting to grow on there own in my garden. Some of the many weeds that I have been pulling are actually tomato plants. I'm sure most of you seasoned gardeners are aware of this possibility, but it is a total surprise to me. I wasn't even thinking that this could happen when we were throwing last years tomatoes back into the garden.

So now, it seems I have a third kind of tomato growing in my garden this year.

Is anyone going to need some tomatoes this year???

Garden Check

2009-07-09T20:26:00.002-04:00

Below are some pictures of this years garden. This year, Jonathan expanded it for me buy 10 feet towards the house. This also means that I am now unable to get the whole garden in one picture when it is ll grown up. This years count is: 1 row of peas (which we are currently battling the barn bunny for) 7 1/2 tows of corn, 2 Big Beef Tomato plants, 1 Joe Petersheim tomato plant (talk to Jonathan's mother on that one) an 1 Green Pepper plant.
a great shot of the peas and the early corn just getting there silks.

Picture of the late corn, tomato plants and the pepper plant. Also my sad attempt of planting marigolds along the perimeter.

A great picture of or peppers. Looks like this could be our first pick of the season!

Maybe I will plan a pepper recipe this weekend!

It's Been 2 Years already!!

2009-07-07T06:10:00.003-04:00

This is a very big day for Jonathan and I. It's our 2 year wedding anniversary. It's just another day for most, but to us, it's a very important day.

I can't believe it's been 2 years already!!

Even though I tell my husband I love him every day, today it means so much more. It's hard to believe that two people that have very different back grounds with very different upbringings could be a likely match. Once again, proof that only God would pair up this match to form a great team. He obviously knew what the other needed when he paired us up.

I guess now we are no longer considered "The Newlyweds" and now slowly moving into "the old married couple" category.

I know that I have posted this picture above before, but to me, as goofy as it is, it's a great description of our lives. It's a picture of me being out of my element, and still having complete trust in my husband to get us through the ride. And I'm sure that God has something to do with that too.

So, to my husband, I am playing our wedding song on this blog. I know that you were never crazy about this song because you thought it was over played, but to me, it was perfect for our perfect day.

Just when I think I couldn't possibly love you any more then I do, my heart continues to grow with each day. I so look forward to our many more adventures together.

Happy Anniversary Babe.

Weekend in Illinois

2009-07-01T05:59:00.004-04:00

This past weekend we headed to Chicago to visit my Aunt Marj. She and her family live in Wayne/St. Charles, Illinois ( a Chicago suburb) and operate an Alpaca farm. They also have an Alpaca farm just down the road and one in Kentucky. They buy, sell, breed and also board Alpacas for others along with there own animals. They often travel and participate in Alpaca shows with there prize animals. Below are some of the great pictures we got before the camera died.
Thanks Aunt Marj for the great weekend!! We look forward to coming back soon!
This is Fanny. The OBVIOUSLY ferocious Great Piraneses dog that guards the animals.

The 2 newest babies on the farm at a few weeks old. As it turned out, they had a new baby born the day after we left. MAN!! only missed it by a day!

random grazing.

This is Casanova. One of there prize studs. I was told he makes beautiful babies, but now he is starting to get old.

The babies chasing each other.

This little guy as you can see, is not the least bit afraid of us. I thought he should be called Buster. He loved our attention, but then wanted to play. This means he became pretty aggressive with us. He eventually was chasing us and trying to kick. But he was pretty darn cute!!

Jonathan giving that attention to Buster. We needed to watch our backs around him. He was liable to come up from behind us and want to "play" at any time.

These animals are absolutely beautiful creatures and relatively tame. As you can see, we can roam there pasture without too much worry. Just wish we could have been there to see the new baby being born. Oh well. Maybe next time.

Hocking Hills Weekend

2009-06-15T21:05:00.003-04:00

This past weekend we took Friday off and headed for Hocking Hills for camping and trail riding. We had two more firsts this weekend. It was Jonathan's first time camping and my first time on an ATV trail ride but the first time that we had done both together.
We stayed in a Kamper cabin at the Hocking Hills KOA campground (ok, so maybe it's semi-camping, next time we will use our tent). The campground was great and the view was amazing. It's tucked away in the hills and woods of Hocking Hills. Although it was very scary trying to get up the hill to the campground with our trailer. The scary hill climb was definitely worth it. The facilities were fun and clean and the people that ran the place were great. Husband and wife team Kurt, Lori and there son Tyler ran the place along with a small staff. Kurt was very helpful and provided us lots of information to get us ready for our trail ride.

On Saturday, we hooked up the trailer and headed to Wayne National Forest for our first trail ride. After talking to several people and being advised that we should not go to the Door Run Trail head since it was our first time out, we decided to go to the New Staightsville trail head. New Straightsville trail head was supposedly the easiest trail in the woods, which sounded great to me. For those that know me, you know that I am a complete wuss when it comes to things like this. Needless to say, I was pretty nervous leading up to this day. I felt noxious right before we left.
We headed out on the trail and I was immediately shocked by what I saw and nearly demanded to turn around and go back. I was obviously unaware of what to expect on these trails. EASIEST TRAIL....... MY FOOT!!!!!! If this trail was easy, I'd hate to see the difficult ones!! The trail was a pretty short trail but seemed to take forever. With all of the steep hills (up and down), the purposely manipulated bumps in the road and the constant fear that you are going to fall over the edge, my hands were numb from hanging on so tight. There were other women riding there own ATV's. If I had my own ATV, I don't think I would have gone on the trail. But with Jonathan driving, there wasn't much time to think about it.
It had also rained quite a bit the week before we got there, which meant there was plenty of mud. The actual mud didn't bother me, it was the mud on the steep hills that made things slippery that scared me. You had to be on the gas just right to make it up these hills to keep from spinning the tires and sliding.
After about a half an hour on the trail, we made it back to the trail head. I had just enough time to gather my wits and calm down, then we headed back to the trail again. I have to say, I was much more relaxed and honestly had a good time, the second time out on the trail. I won't say that I am ready for anything more difficult then what we did, but I think I am interested in finding more places to ride. I think we might have gotten a bit over our heads going to Wayne National Forest as beginners and I think that needs to be noted somewhere on there brochures- NOT FOR BEGINNERS!!
We think we found a good place in eastern Ohio to try next. Hopefully they are more suited for our (my) level.
Check out our pics below of our fun weekend.
AHHHHH this is relaxation!!

The mesmerizing view both nights.

This is the view from our camp sight.

This is the first fire we lit when we got there. The fire was hardly burning yet when Jonathan couldn't wait and tore open the marshmallows. Notice the marshmallow is grey and isn't even burned yet from the fire starter we had to use. He didn't care and ate it anyways.

This is the view that the campground is known for. Absolutely beautiful!

I just caught Jonathan with a mouthful of his morning Cheerios buy the fire. (had to make a morning fire to heat our coffee water)

The view while on the trail. I wish I could have bottled the fresh pine air and brought it home with me.

I couldn't pass this picture up. Yes, we are actually smiling.

Other then the birds and bugs, this is the only sign of life we saw while on the trail. Not quite sure what it is but it nearly didn't make this picture when it jumped out in front of Jonathan on trail.

The post ride picture. The perty little Polaris isn't so perty anymore!! It actually didn't look half as bad as some of the other guys coming out of the woods.

What is this a picture of ??

2009-06-07T19:08:00.002-04:00

Two people that really need a vacation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunrise

2009-05-27T06:21:00.002-04:00

As you can see above, it seems I have given up on my sunsets and have now taken up the sunrise. As I was waving goodbye to Jonathan as he left this morning, noticed the sunrise and ran to get my camera. Now if only I could move those wires, but I kinda like having electricity in my house. And Maybe someday I will fix the date on my camera too.

Memorial weekend activities

2009-05-25T20:48:00.002-04:00

Not much really happened for us this weekend. It was rather dull actually. but I did manage to get a lot done around the house.
On Friday, we met up with a few of my high school friends for dinner at a really good Chinese Buffet.
On Saturday, Jonathan and I quickly ran our errands in the morning then hustled back to the house. Jonathan then spent the rest of the day riding with George in his police cruiser in Riverside. When they arrived at the station to clock in, they were informed they may be doing over time. What was supposed to be a 2- 10pm shift ended up being a 2pm- 2am shift. Needless to say, Jonathan was pretty tired in church the next morning. While Jonathan was playing Cops on Saturday, I was at home planting my tomatoes and pepper plants in the garden. I pretty much took it easy around the house most of the day and watched a few movies.
Sunday afternoon Jonathan and I watched the Indy 500 and wished we could be there again. It was definitely an exciting race.
Maybe next year Danica!! 3rd place is definitely and improvement from last year!!

Above is a pic of our garden Things are really starting to come up. We have 5 rows of corn so far with 3 more rows still to plant. We also decided to grow peas this year. I think I planted them a little too late in the season, but we thought we would give it a try. If they don't work this time, we can try again in September. I have 2 Big Beef tomato plants along with 1 Bell Pepper plant. I also took the advice of others to plant Marigold flowers around my veggie plants with hopes of keeping the critters out. WRONG!!! Of the 6 Marigold plants, 3 have magically disappeared......I can only guess as to how that happened. Now I fear the Birds will go after the Pea plants. I think, maybe some chicken wire may be needed this year.

And today, Jonathan worked up north with his dad at his cousins house. While I was on my own again. Luckily, Jonathan's Niece and Nephews came in for the weekend with there mothers family and I got to see them at the Bretherens home while they visited there great grand parents. They get so much bigger every time I see them.

After our visit, I had to head to Dayton to pick up my bridesmaid dress and also managed a quick stroll around the Dayton Mall.

And for dinner tonight, I made BBQ Ribs on the grill for the first time. They looked great on the grill, but I wouldn't say they tasted great. It was a mix of cooking them too long and also being given a bad cut of meat buy the local butcher (no names). Since Jonathan and I aren't the most educated when it comes to picking a cut of meat, we just accepted the first cut they offered us. They said "yeah, it really looks like it has a lot of meat". Wrongo!! It had a very thin layer of meat on top with a very thick layer of fat. I think the butcher saw SUCKER on our foreheads when we walked through the door.

My lesson for the day: Just because you go to a real butcher doesn't mean you are always getting the best cut of meat. Know what you're buying before you buy it.

The 10 Commandments of Marriage-Sermon Notes

2009-05-17T17:13:00.003-04:00

For the past several weeks our pastor at church has been doing a series called"Mystery of Marriage". Pastor Steve has really made a point to hit the topics that are the most important and controversial in marriage. He is tackling some of the most awkward and sensitive topics of marriage head on, and giving us answers and solutions directly from the bible.
This weeks topic was: The 10 Commandments of Marriage. Below, I have copied the 10 points from his sermon notes. I thought it was so great that I had to share it with everyone.
10 things that are the most important things to live by when it comes to marriage.

1) Thou shalt not be a selfish pig. Genesis 3:1, 4-5. The #1 problem in marriage is selfishness. Philippians 2:3
2) Thou shalt cut the apron strings. Genesis 2:24
3) Thou shalt continually communicate with each other. Ephesians 4:15-16
4) Thou shalt not try to change your spouse. Proverbs 31
5) Tho shalt avoid the quick sand of debt. Matthew 6:33 and 6:21
6) Thou shalt flee sexual temptation. II Timothy 2:22
7) Thou shalt protect each other emotionally and physically. I Corinthians 7
8) Thou shalt forgive thy spouse and begin again and again. Matthew 18:21-22
9) Thou shalt keep the home fires burning. Marriage takes honest commitment-work. Revelation 2:2-5
10) Thou shalt build a winning team-put God first! Ecclesiastes 9:12
Jonathan, me and Jesus!!

A really great day

2009-05-16T21:48:00.004-04:00

Today, Jonathan an I kinda had a fun day. Since we figured it would rain all day, this gave a good excuse to find something else for the day.
We planned a trip to Kentucky. Jonathan's cousin, Brent Graduated from college this morning and we stopped at his cousin Danette's house for the open house party. We had a great time visiting his family and seeing Danette's new house.
After we were done visiting at the party, we had planned on meeting one of my dearest Kentucky friends, Reba. This is the woman who took me in for 2 months while I was homeless (not really but kinda). When Jonathan and I bought our house just before we got married, I was still in my apartment in KY. Since we couldn't afford a house payment and an apartment payment, I had to move out of my apartment. And since I was still working at the airport in KY, and still didn't have a job in Dayton and since our house was not quite suitable to live in yet, Reba offered to let me camp at her house until I found a job. So through April and May of 2007, I slept on her living room floor until I started my new job in Dayton in June. Talk about the right person coming into my life at just the right time. Yet another moment that I am reminded at how much God did for me that year. Despite all of the personal challenges she was facing at that time, she was always praying for me. The day that I found out that i got my job in Dayton, Reba was right there sitting next to me. I think I might have scared her neighbors by my screams of excitement. When the initial excitement was over, she was the first to pray with me to thank God for all he had done.
Below is a picture of my dear friend Reba and I. SNIFF SNIFF..........

Waiting for the next great sunset.

2009-05-10T21:15:00.003-04:00

I guess it was past time to get the snow picture off the blog. I hope to get another great sunset picture to post soon. I will be on the look out!!

Successssss

2009-04-29T19:41:00.004-04:00

Finally, my Irises came up.
I was given these Irises from my Aunt Sandy last year. when they didn't come up last year, I was a bit worried. It looks like we have success this year! Now I just need to get the large ones to come in the back yard. When it comes to flowers, I don't really have that green thumb touch, so I was pretty excited to see these.
By the way, ignore the date on the pic. It really was taken today.

Homemade Pizza

2009-04-27T21:41:00.002-04:00

Tonight I crossed off another cooking to-do goal off my list. Jonathan has been begging for quite a while now for me to make a homemade pizza. Since I am currently on a homemade bread kick right now, I figured pizza dough was in that category also.
Don't let the looks of this pizza fool you. It turned out really great -taste wise that is. I guess I can work out the visual part later. Unfortunately, the only thing low-fat was the Turkey Pepperoni. I found a really great pizza cheese mix and spent a little more money on the fancy pizza sauce. Luckily the dough recipe that I did made 2 crusts. So it looks like a fresh pizza for dinner tomorrow night also.

Dinner Success

2009-04-18T20:40:00.002-04:00

Tonight we invited Jonathan's parents over for dinner. It was kind of a delayed Birthday dinner for Jonathan.
I'm not sure why, but I always get nervous whenever I cook for Jonathan's mother. She certainly has never made me feel like I should be nervous. I think it's just all in my head. Pressure that I tend to put on myself.
There have been times when I have cooked for them and things didn't quite turn out the way I pictured them in my head. Like my Crock pot Ribs, Cola Ham or my Broccoli Casserole.......oy......if I could turn back time. One lesson I have learned since I have been with Jonathan: don't try as recipe for the first time when you are feeding your in-laws. MAKE SURE IT IS FULL PROOF.
But tonight, it was a slam dunk!! I made a fairly low fat dinner and everything was great. I know Jonathan's parents will always be nice and tell me everything was good. Then after they leave, I beg Jonathan for an honest opinion. I really need his honesty about my cooking if I want to improve my skills. Anyway, tonight we put some pork chops on the grill from House's meat market. I first marinated them in Italian dressing for a few hours (thanks Dad), then Jonathan threw them on the grill. I also made potato salad the night before (thanks Mom), but with shredded potatoes like Jonathan likes. While the chops were cooking, I was also roasting some Asparagus in the oven, yummo. For dessert, I made Pineapple Angel Food Cake (thanks Debbie), with Cool whip on top. It was oh so dreamy.
So, of coarse Jonathan's parents said everything was great. And after they left, Jonathan gave me 2 thumbs up. I knew I hit a home run tonight.

Happy Brithday to my Simple Man

2009-04-15T06:06:00.004-04:00

This is a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my best friend and husband, Jonathan. He is a big 35 this year!! He is one of the few lucky ones to have his Birthday on Tax Day.

Happy Birthday Babe. Thank you for always being my Simple Man.

Happy Birthday Morgan!!!

2009-04-11T23:18:00.003-04:00

Today we celebrated my nephew Morgan's 3rd Birthday. The day was filled with plenty of festivities and chaos, and we loved every minute of it. Below are some pictures of family kids that came today.
Here is the Birthday boy, Morgan. Since he loves DoodleBops right now, Grandma got him an outfit to make him look like MO from DoodleBops. Grandma is taking him to the bathroom to look in the big mirror. I think he might have scared himself!

Here, Sherri, Noah and Morgan are chasing the bubbles on the new bubble blower.It's the coolest thing. It blows 4000 bubbles in about a minute. There were bubbles blowing everywhere.

April (Morgans mom) brought long balloons and a pump to make balloon toys. Jonathan got ahold of the biggest balloon in the bucket. It's a 5 foot long balloon once it is fulling blown/pumped up. In the background are the kids watching anxiously. He pumped and pumped until he finally had to take it out side to let it go. The thing shot like a rocket across the yard and thankfully didn't land in a tree.

This is miss Abby, striking a pose.

This is Abby with her balloon whale.

Just A Few Updates

2009-04-08T21:36:00.002-04:00

Yes, we are still alive and well. It seems like forever since I Blogged last.
Our first up date is that Jonathan is now back to work. He was off a total of 3 weeks, which can seem like an eternity when you don't know when you go back to work until the day before. We were really preparing for a few months, but fortunately ended up being much shorter then expected. We now take it one day, one week at a time being grateful for each hour of employment. In the business that Jonathan works, seasonal layoffs go with the territory. I guess it's something we need to get used to. We never really know if there is another job to head to when one gets completed. While he was off, Jonathan was able do some work for some folks that go to our church. I encouraged him to do excellent, honest work and hopefully word will spread.
Not much else has been going on lately.

I'm really looking forward to the Easter festivities this weekend. With a very uneventful winter, I am ready to have fun with the family this weekend. So far on the agenda for the weekend is: Bridesmaid dress shopping, one big Birthday party for 3 family members, an Easter egg hunt and 2 Easter Dinners. I am also looking forward to the big crowd at church this weekend. Thankfully our church has switched to 2 Easter services to make sure that everyone has a chance to hear The Word.

Below, are a few unrelated pictures.

This past weekend, I made my first batch of homemade Pecan Sticky Buns. I thought they turned out pretty good- especially the bread. The sticky part did get pretty sticky though. This is definitely something I want to keep pursuing. Bread making is a great skill to have and a good way to make people happy. Who doesn't love a fresh loaf of homemade bread? A few weeks ago we ordered a pantry cabinet from a guy at our church. He is young and has a God given talent of working with wood. I saw a picture album of some of the work he has done and I couldn't believe it. He can completely redo your kitchen, build you a Hutch or entertainment center among just a few. He also built our Bathroom Vanity when we were first fixing up the house. If you want his name or number, just let us know.
The cabinet was delivered tonight and I didn't waist any time filling it up. This is a much needed pantry cabinet that I have been patiently waiting to get. I am so excited that my canned goods will no longer be falling on my head when I open my kitchen cabinets. I am also happy that all my spices are now at eye level and will no longer be falling from the kitchen cabinet, into my mixing bowl (while I am mixing).

A time for change

2009-03-01T17:52:00.003-05:00

Well, we are now temporarily a one income household. A week ago Friday, Jonathan was laid off from his job. It was something we knew was inevitable this year but weren't real sure when it would happen. Now we begin the long wait for an unemployment check. We are hoping and praying that by the time the Government gets around to sending us his first check, that Jonathan could be back to work. We don't know though. So far the only thing we have is that work could pick up mid spring.
On Monday, I gave Jonathan a weeks worth of Honey do's (straighten the garage up) and he also had his own list of things. When I came home Monday evening, he had managed to complete both lists. I said "my goodness babe, what are ya gonna do for the rest of the week?" So now, Jonathan has quite a bit of free time. A guy at church today says he might have some work for him to do maybe next week. So, if anyone needs some help right now, just let Jonathan know. If anything, just for something to do. I fear he might get a bit restless being at home all the time.
With me working, we are trying to get by with spending as little as possible from our savings. It's a lot of number crunching. We looked pretty silly at the grocery this week trying to shop on our shoestring budget. It's very hard to shop cheap when you are trying to still eat healthy. I tell ya, Aldi is the greatest thing since sliced bread!!! I asked the clerk that checked us out, "So has business been up?" she says, "Like you wouldn't believe". She said "we used to be the best kept secret". I suddenly didn't feel so silly with my calculator. When I looked up, I saw several others in the corners doing the same thing.
I called the satellite company on Saturday to cancel our cable, because there rates have recently gone up. They were so nice when I told them that we just couldn't afford there service any longer. The guy I talked to asked if I would be interested in cutting back to there "welcome package". 21 channels along with local channels for 14.99. He also decided to waive 2 of the silly fees that totaled $10. As he was reading off all the channels that we would now have, he then asked "so are there any channel's that you are looking for?" I asked, "is TLC on this package, it's my favorite?" ( I love watching the Duggar family) he says "no it's not". and that was that. We agreed to the new channels and the new rate and hung up. About 15 minutes later as we were flipping through our channels, we noticed the change had been made. I was a bit sad when I saw how few were left, until I saw that TLC had been added to our package. I was suddenly so happy I could have cried. I never asked for it, I was just curious if it was already included. The guy was listening and added it for free to our package. Now that I have my favorite channel, I couldn't care less about the others.

I refuse to see us as being victims of the economy. Instead, I am saying that like everything else, things happen for a reason. I believe God has thrown us this curve to make us evaluate our priorities in life. In the end, God and family are the only things that matter.

To lighten my spirits, I have posted this picture below of my Mom and Max. I thought this was just too cute. If you look closely, you can see his first tooth coming in on the bottom.
Those cheeks could never have too many kisses!!!!!!!!!!! :)

A Valentine's Day splurge

2009-02-15T17:12:00.003-05:00

Yesterday we decided to make a day of Valentine's Day. We headed out about noon and ended up at The Greene in Beavercreek. We spent a few hours just walking in and out of stores and getting a few things. We then headed to The Cheesecake Factory for an early dinner. We walked in at about 2:30 and had to wait 45 minutes for our table. I didn't really care how long the wait was. We both wanted this. Thanks to 2 years worth of gift cards from my brother and his wife for Christmas, we had every intention of splurging.
The hostess sat us at a really great secluded table, rather then the central tables that are practically on top of each other. We started out with what they call "small bites" of Fried Zucchini and Onion rings. This was anything but a small bite. Both were easily the best Fried Zucchini and Onion rings we had ever had. I then ordered the Combination Salmon and Chicken plate and Jonathan had the Philly Flank Steak that the server recommended. Both were melt in your mouth wonderful. After Jonathan had his second peach smoothie, we were both completely stuffed. The Cheesecake came with us to-go.
Normally we do not eat like this at restaurants, but since it was free and we never get to that part of town, we decided to go all out and spend all of our gift cards. It could be another 2 years before we make the effort to get over there again.
Jonathan's Philly Flank Steak along with his second Peach smoothie. His meal was really good. The steak was actually bigger then what the picture shows. It has a really great sauce along with a fancy bread underneath the steak collecting all the juices of the sauce and steak.

I had a combination platter of Herb Crusted Salmon, Madeira Chicken and a massive serving of mashed potatoes. All of this was wonderful but my favorite part of this dish were the sauces and the asparagus. I wish I knew how to cook my asparagus as perfect as there's was.

And these are the flowers Jonathan got me on Friday along with the cheesecake that came home with us.. Jonathan had the Peanut butter cookie dough Cheesecake and I had the Peanut butter Fudge Ripple Cheesecake. Both were awesome!!

Lesson for the day: Eating like this always comes back to haunt you.....

Fireproof

2009-02-10T19:14:00.002-05:00

I have now made it a point to stop buying movies at the store. Since DVDs are going out and they just stack up around the house, I didn't want to buy anymore movies. Until now. We heard so much about this movie Fireproof that I became a mad woman tearing through the store to purchase this movie. I wanted to buy this movie without seeing it first. I just new this would be to good to not share with everyone.

I can honestly say that I have never been moved by a movie as much as I was moved by this one. I wouldn't call this an Oscar winning movie, but if they had an Oscar for actual content and life lessons, this would be it.
The brief synopsis (without ruining the movie) is a husband and wife whose marriage is on the skids and is heading for divorce. She wants a divorce because she is tired of his disrespect. He is simply tired of not being respected. Throughout the movie, with help, he is making the attempt to keep his marriage while she just wants out.
I don't think I can say much more then WOW!! An actual good movie without the swearing and racy content.
Jonathan had heard a bit about the movie and for a change I didn't have to tie him down or prod him to wake up. Of course I was a blubbering fool through the whole movie. Since we were sitting in the dark watching the movie, the only thing I heard from Jonathan's chair was "SNIFF SNIFF, SNIFF SNIFF. My husband who doesn't get the least bit emotional when it comes to movies, was actually SNIFF SNIFFING! Hopefully that is a good indicator to everyone else, as to how good it was.
I have now taken this movie to work and after driving everyone crazy by gushing over it so much, I now have 5 people from work who want to watch it. And I'm sure after they watch it, they will want to share it also. This is a real chance to minister to people with a subject that is universal. Whether you are married for 1 year or 50 years, dating or engaged or just dreaming of marriage, this is the movie for you. The subject is dealt with in a very real way and not too "Hollywood".
Just imagine all the work that can be done just by buying the movie and passing it around.

2 thumbs up for me!!

This and That

2009-02-08T16:25:00.003-05:00

This week was pretty uneventful for us since there was no "weather event". Just business as usual.
Right now we are kinda thinking that our computer is getting ready to die on us. It's been frustratingly slow when logging on and also keeps telling us we have bugs. Once we realized this, we were kind of in a panic situation with our pictures. We have 1 1/2 years of pictures on our computer that have never been put to a disc. So, I stopped at the store this week and found some discs. We were never really sure how to do it, but once I started hitting some buttons, it was pretty self explanatory. I'm pretty sure we managed to get them saved.

Yesterday, I made a date with my 2 best girls, Karizma and Karma. I had fun once again spoiling them with a movie and dinner. We saw Hotel for Dogs, which was really cute. If you are a dog lover then you will really like it. When I asked them where they wanted to eat, I rattled off all of these nice restaurants that I thought they might like. But then Karma says, "Hey, there's McDonald's and HEY!!! look at that playland!!!" My attempt at a nice dinner for the 3 of us was foiled by Ronald. But then, when our dinner only came to 15 bucks for 3 dinners and ice cream, I thought to myself, "this isn't a bad deal after all". Once the girls had completely worn themselves out in the playland, it was time to head home.

Today, We haven't done much at all. We went to church and came home to a turkey breast in the oven along with mashed potatoes and veggies. I really love my new oven. The old one didn't have time bake. Now it's really nice to come home to the smell of my turkey already cooking in the oven.
Also, I was finally able to get my hands on a copy of the movie "Fireproof" that everyone at church keeps talking about. I think now I will sign off and watch it with Jonathan. I will provide my critique with my next entry. TTFN.

Meet Chuckles.......The Personal Assistant.

2009-02-01T16:06:00.003-05:00

Meet Chuckles. He is the new personal assistant in training to Jonathan at Garber Electric. He was hired today when he did a great job of rolling around in the back yard. Chuckles has a great personality and a real way of helping out with snow. He only needs to roll around a few times and BAM! the snow is lifted off the ground.
Now that Chuckles is done rolling in the snow, he is moving to the streets with Jonathan. As you can see here, he seems to be really great at assisting with Jonathan's tools. I don't think there is a Snowman Union yet, so he should be fine with working the long hours with Jonathan.

YOU. That's right. YOU can also have your own personal assistant too. They are now available at my house. Just stop by and we can have one waiting for you. This is a great offer, so hurry! Offer good until snow supplies last.

See, not only a personal assistant but a great buddy too.

SNOW DAY!! SNOW DAY!!

2009-01-28T13:49:00.004-05:00

Today, we decided to take a snow day. With me driving to Dayton and Jonathan working in Fairfield, there was no way we were going to brave the elements just to get to work.
Last night, Jonathan got a head start on the plowing of all this snow. We are pretty sure he plowed about 4 inches off the driveway before the next round of snow came in the middle of the night. By early morning we had another 5 inches in the driveway. When I had called into work to let them know I wouldn't be in today, Darke county was only at a level 2 emergency. By mid-morning, we were at a level 3-I no longer feel guilty for taking the day off. When the snow finally quit falling around 11:30am, we had a total of 8" in the driveway. Yes, that would make a total of 12 inches of snow in about a day and a half.
This is a picture of the at least a 3 foot high drift up against our back door.

Jonathan finally gets to give the Polaris a good workout. He is working hard at clearing our driveway.

This is the read we got from our yard stick in the driveway. This measures 8 inches of snow after he had already plowed 4 inches off the night before.

My husband. Always the good neighbor. This is neighbor #2 that he is helping to get plowed out. He just came inside to warm up. Since he loves the snow, I'm sure he will be back out there again later on today.

SPECIAL NOTE: One of the neighbors Jonathan just plowed out, just walked over to our house and gave Jonathan a fresh batch of Oatmeal Cookies. YUMMO!!

Dinner with Max and Co.

2009-01-25T16:21:00.002-05:00

This weekend wasn't really eventful for us. Saturday, Jonathan worked up north with his dad and cousin again. I ran all the errands and did a few chores around the house
On Sunday, as we were walking out of church, it looked like a Sunday blizzard. A well known nickname that I have is Weather Wanda, because I am always on top of and worried about the weather forecast. Well, Weather Wanda missed this one!! We had made plans to meet my brother and sister-in-law for dinner after church. At a crawling pace, we finally made it to there house and headed to dinner.
We had a great time just chatting, playing with Max and watching the snow fall.

Happy 40th Anniversary Mother and Dad Yoder!!

2009-01-18T17:42:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, we tried to pull a fast one over on Jonathan's parents. They were celebrating there 40th Wedding Anniversary. We decided to try to gather the family at Rob's Restaurant for an Anniversary Luncheon.
We were very fortunate to get Jonathan's brother Steve and his family to make a day trip up just for the event. We also got all of her brothers and there wives to show too. We had a great time just talking and catching up and eating really good food. Thanks to everyone for taking time out of there day to celebrate with us!!
Above is the beautiful cake we had made for them. Every flower was edible except for the Tiger Lilly. Thanks Linda for coming through for me again at the last minute!!

Here is the happy couple. Congratulations!

This is a picture of Jonathan's parents along with her brothers and there wives. In the center, keeping the restless crowd in line, is Grandpa Lavy.

Catching people with there mouths full. Thanks to the folks at Rob's Restaurant for there service in our private room and really great food. If you haven't been there yet, you should add it to your list.

9 to 5

2009-01-06T20:28:00.002-05:00

Well, the Holidays are officially over. The tree is put away along with all other visual signs of Christmas in the house. I have been fortunate enough to have had quite a few days off in December from work. I am one of those annoying people who seem to save there vacation days until the end of the year, just in case.
Now that I feel sufficiently rested, it is now back to real life. "Workin 9 to 5" (or 8 to 5). I have to honestly say that I am a creature of habit, which means I missed my daily home/work routine. For some reason I seem to get more done in my day if there is a busier schedule (if that makes sense). I guess I am prone to put things off and procrastinate more if I have "nothing" to do at home.
Even though I am now back to the hustle and bustle of work, somehow the routine is comforting.

This could be a different story by about April or so. I will probably be tired of the 8 to 5 and ready for a spring Vacation!
I will start looking for a good song now!

Christmas Surprises

2009-01-04T19:00:00.002-05:00

The ugly rooster above, if you recall, surprised my dad last New Years day. It "mysteriously" appeared on his front porch. Courtesy of my sister in Arizona. This year, the rooster made front row on the wall of fame. Notice the Santa hat and the bow around his neck. This Christmas, my dad sent my sister a very tacky frog which you can see on her blog link to the left for Wendy. Obviously the gifts are getting more and more tacky with each year. I can't wait until next year...
And these are the Christmas gifts that Jonathan and I decided to get each other. a new stove and refrigerator. We ended up getting various gift cards and cash for Christmas from other people. So the day after Christmas we headed out the door looking for a great deal. It ended up that Hansbargers had the best deal. Our old clunkers were hauled out on Friday and the new were brought in. As you can see, I am using the oven for the first time for my Chocolate Chip Cookies.
It also looks like Santa's UPS elves FINALLY arrived with Jonathan's Christmas present. I got Jonathan his first Telescope (upon request). We will be waiting for the warm weather before we take it out side. For now, we have it set up in the living room. I told him that instead of looking like a star gazer, he looked like the weirdo looking out the window. LOL!!

Notice Something Out of Place??

2008-12-31T11:56:00.005-05:00

Since I had one more Vacation day to burn at work before the end of the year, I decided to take today off. One item on my list was to get the Christmas decorations put away. As I was taking the ornaments off the tree, the cat started to pace around the tree as if he was worried about what I was doing to his tree. I went to the garage to take the first box out and came back to find the cat nearly to the top of the tree!! Previously we had to resort to the squirt bottle to keep him off the tree. But since everything was off the tree today, I just had to laugh at how high he made it this time.

Christmas fun with Pepper

2008-12-25T10:25:00.002-05:00

Why Jesus is Better then Santa

2008-12-23T07:36:00.002-05:00

Below is a quick comparative explaining why Jesus is better then Santa. We received this from our Sunday class teacher after he found this online. I'm sure most of you have seen this before, I thought it was to cool to pass up.
Enjoy.

Santa lives at the North Pole...
JESUS is everywhere.

Santa rides in a sleigh...
JESUS rides on the wind and walks on the water.

Santa comes but once a year...
JESUS is an ever present help.

Santa fills your stockings with goodies...
JESUS supplies all your needs.

Santa comes down your chimney uninvited...
JESUS stands at your door and knocks, and then enters your heart when invited.

You have to wait in line to see Santa...
JESUS is as close as the mention of His name.

Santa lets you sit on his lap...
JESUS lets you rest in His arms.

Santa doesn't know your name, all he can say is "Hi little boy or girl, what's your name?"...
JESUS knew our name before we were born. Not only does He know our name, He knows our address too. He knows our history and future and He even knows how many hairs are on our heads.

Santa has a belly like a bowl full of jelly...
JESUS has a heart full of love.

All Santa can offer is HO HO HO...
JESUS offers health, help and hope.

Santa says "You better not cry"...
JESUS says "Cast all your cares on me for I care for you."

Santa's little helpers make toys...
JESUS makes new life, mends wounded hearts, repairs broken homes and builds mansions.

Santa may make you chuckle but...
JESUS gives you joy that is your strength.

While Santa puts gifts under your tree...
JESUS became our gift and died on a tree... the cross.

We need to put Christ back in CHRISTmas, Jesus is still the reason for the season.

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).

Paige Jayden: A Christmas Wish

2008-12-19T21:47:00.002-05:00

Paige Jayden is my sisters granddaughter in Tuscon, Arizona. She was born less then a month apart from my nephew Colton Taylor. When Paige was an infant she was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 1 (below is the description). Praise God, Paige has already outlived the doctors expectations by 2 years and is now growing at the rate of a normal 4 year old. She is also rapidly outgrowing her only form of mobility and has now become big enough that she needs a special handicap van for transportation. The family is holding a fundraiser to help pay for this new van for Paige. The family will be raffling off a handmade quilt along with other gift certificates as a part of this fund raiser..
If you are interested in making a donation for Paige, please go to:
http://www.bestfundraiserwebsite.com/registries/view/56816969
with this link, you will also see a picture of her and this message below:

Hello Everybody, Most of you know that I have a niece PAIGE. Well she will be 4 years old on December 31st. A very big step for her. Paige Jayden was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 1 at the age of 4 months old. We were given the worst news in our lives, this disease is fatal, with no cure, and that she would not live to be over 2 years old. She received a gastrostomy shortly after diagnoses and a tracheotomy at about 6 months old. She requires the use of a ventilator 24 hours a day and suctioning to remove secretions form her mouth and lungs. Paige is an alert, bright, intelligent child who attends Project Able at Marshall Elementary school. Like most 3 years old girls she enjoys being read to, watching TV,princesses, fairies, and "Fancy Nancy". She is loved and accepted by her family and all those who take the time to get to know her. Just a little info:Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) Type 1SMA occurs when a vital gene (Survivor motor neuron gene SMN) is deleted or mutated preventing the creation on the protein necessary for muscle strength. A second, nearly identical copy gene SMN2 is present in all SMA patients. SMA is an autosomal recessive neurodegenerative disease characterized by a dramatic loss of spinal motor neurons resulting in muscle weakness, atrophy, and in the worst cases the ability to breathe and swallow. The mind is unaffected while the muscles waste away. Our family is looking for some help. My grandmother, Paige's Great-grandmother has hand made a queen size quilt and we are raffling off along with gift certificates in hopes to help in the expense of a wheelchair accessible van. Paige has gotten to big for her car seat and is very hard to get her in the car with all her equipment. The raffle will be held on her 4th birthday December 31st 2008 The tickets are 1 for $1.00 or 6 for $5.00 I would be happy to fill out the raffle tickets for you. We all thank you in advance,
Jamie & Family

The Creation Museum

2008-12-15T21:02:00.003-05:00

This past Saturday, Jonathan and I decided to take a fun day. Just a day where we could have a little fun but not have to travel so far.
We headed to The Creation Museum in Petersburg, KY. This was something that we have wanted to do for a while now but never made the time. We figured this time around Christmas would be great.
We were completely amazed by the whole experience. I think they did a great job on everything and we can't wait to go back in the spring/summer when the garden is in bloom.
After about 2 1/2 hours in the museum we headed outside to walk the grounds. They had a live Nativity scene on the property. Unfortunately we didn't stay past dark to see all the lights lit up. We also paid a visit to the petting zoo where Jonathan got bit by the over sized pig and nearly bit by one of the older donkeys. My favorite was the baby donkey with the coat. I don't think I've ever seen a donkey that small before.
Once we finished at the museum we headed back North again and stopped at an open house for one of Jonathan's friends that just turned 40.
After the B-day party, we kept going north and made a detour at the Spaghetti Warehouse in Dayton for a late dinner, which is always worth the headache of getting there.
Once we were sufficiently stuffed, we headed home and crashed.
Definitely a memorable day.
One of the many Adam and Eve scenes at the museum.

Jonathan getting up close and personal with the Camel. Once she realized Jonathan didn't have food, she was no longer interested

This is the over sized grouchy pig that took a nip of Jonathan. I didn't know at the time that it had tried to bite him, so I kept telling him to get closer so I could get this picture. Now I feel bad.

And this is the cute little donkey with a jacket. He was a bit shy.

And this is us!! Jonathan trying to get the picture centered.

There never seems to be anyone around when we want to take a picture.

Thanksgiving Festivities

2008-12-09T19:54:00.004-05:00

I know this post is almost 2 weeks behind, but here it is.
This Thanksgiving we had a change to our usual Thanksgiving routine. This year Jonathan and I got to spend all Thanksgiving Day at my Dads house, when usually we are bouncing from one dinner to the next. We arrived at my Dads house just after 12 noon and spent the day with Dad and Carols family.
Talk about busy. Our family is beginning to outgrow it's gathering point. There are now 6 small grand kids that cheerfully add to the excitement of the day. Also, this was the first Thanksgiving for the newest arrival, Max. Of course he doesn't get what's going on, just that he is being passed around and meeting people for the first time.
We were sufficiently stuffed really glad to see everyone.

On Friday morning, we were up early and heading to Oakland City, Indiana with Polaris in tow. We were off to have another Thanksgiving with Jonathan's brother Steve and his family along with Jonathan's parents. I was so excited the whole way there because we were meeting Steve's wife, Sylvia, for the first time.
When we arrived, we were met with smiles and big hugs from all. Once we all got acquainted, we were treated to a pizza lunch. We were then off for our first 4-wheeling trip. I wish we had taken the camera because the trip was quite interesting. We went 16 miles around the coal mines of the area. I can honestly say that I have never been that close to a coal mine before. Through out the weekend we could hear the blasting that the mines were doing from the house. And of course when you have coal mines, you also have trains. TRAINS TRAINS and MORE TRAINS!! Steve's house has train tracks in front across the street and in back of the property line. These trains seemed to run a lot through the day while we were there. It's funny because they usually didn't notice the trains, but Jonathan and I jumped up to see every time they came through. It's kinda like when you grow up in Vandalia and your plates rattle across the picnic table when you have visitors over because Emery cargo planes are flying over your house. My family didn't notice the planes anymore, but our guest looked at us like the sky is falling. (true story)
We spent the rest of the weekend just enjoying the family and eating LOTS of food.
We also got to meet two of Sylvia's kids. James, who was very welcoming and Winter Dawn who arrived on Saturday for dinner with her husband Roy and toddler son Andrew (what a character). Winter brought lots of food for dinner, one of which were some awesome Chicken 'n' Dumplings. Winter--- can I please, please, please get that recipe?????????????????? I have been forced to turn to the Internet to find something only close to what you made!!
After we all had our fill and then a later refill, we headed up to the video store for some movies. Wouldn't ya know it.........we stumbled across the local Christmas Parade. We got stuck at the video store while the parade passed but managed to score a bag full of candy that was thrown out to the kids on the street. (no we didn't steal from the kids, they had there bags full too)
On Sunday morning we met everyone at the Denny's in town for breakfast then headed back to the house for the afternoon.
At about 3pm on Sunday, with the truck cab loaded down with left overs and the trailer safely secured, we gave our hugs and said good bye to everyone.
I have to honestly say that we had a really great time. You never know what to expect when you head into a situation and meet new people for the first time. I guess I was excited and nervous before we got there, but any nerves that I had were quickly put away. We were made to feel welcome as soon as we got there.
Thanks Steve and Sylvia for the hospitality. You guys were great!! We hope to see you both with the kids around here soon.

Jonathan's Parents on the left. Steve and Sylvia in the Middle. Jonathan and I on the right. with Benjamin in front and Elizabeth in the pink (she's taller then me now!!) Daniel is taking the picture, who is now 17!!
Max with Grandma Carol

Max and Grandpa making faces at each other

Happy Birthday Colton Taylor!!!

2008-12-03T19:52:00.002-05:00

My little nephew in Arizona, Colton, turned a big 4 today. Happy Birthday Colton. I hope you had a great day!! Miss you and love you bunches!

Spaghetti Pizza

2008-11-25T21:14:00.003-05:00

I found this really great recipe while thumbing through one of my Kraft cookbooks. It's called Spaghetti Pizza. Jonathan and I love it so much that I thought I would share it. This is one of those recipes that are full proof and can be made to your taste. If you like spaghetti, then you will like this. Some of you may have heard of it before, but here is the recipe anyway:

8 oz spaghetti, cooked and drained
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup of milk
1/2 tsp garlic powder
Salt and pepper, optional
1 pound of lean ground beef or ground turkey
1 small onion, optional
1-14oz can of tomato sauce
1 envelope of Good Seasonings Garlic & Herb Salad dressing mix
1- cup part skim mozzarella cheese
any other pizza toppings you may like

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Toss spaghetti, milk, egg, garlic powder, salt and pepper together in a large bowl. Spread evenly over 12" pizza pan.
Brown meat and onions in medium skillet. Drain.
Add tomato sauce and seasoning packet to meat. heat through until hot.
Spread sauce mixture evenly over noodles.
Layer pizza toppings over sauce and finish off with sprinkled cheese.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until cheese is melted.
Cut into slices and serve.

I make a healthier version by making this with multi-grain noodles, lean ground turkey and fat free cheese. I also added some turkey peperoni that were also great.
From start to table, it shouldn't take more then 45 minutes.
Give it a try!!

Hey sis. For 1/6 slice it's only 7 points. Even the hungry guys should like it!!

More Pictures

2008-11-20T21:04:00.002-05:00

My new do. I decided to do something different to my hair this time. I haven't had hair this short in over 10 years now. But this is definitely a new style for me. Now I guess I actually have to put some effort into my hair every morning

Jonathan and I on our new Polaris. That's me with my new "Rock star" helmet (that's what the helmet is really called)

Jonathan and I met Nick and Betsy for dinner at Olive Garden after church on Sunday. Little Max was such a good boy. He is such a happy baby, except when he is hungry. You'll notice he is already a dead ringer of my brother. He should just start calling him Mini-Me.

Jonathan and Max watching football. Looks like Max saw a good play!!

A Month of Updates

2008-11-15T21:20:00.002-05:00

Well, it seems our fall activities have finally slowed down. We have a few slow weekends now before the Christmas activities begin. So here are a few things that have been happening the past few weekends,
The weekend after we got back from Canaan Valley, I invited my two best girls over for a sleep over. I have known these girls since they were born. There Mother and I met as kids when we lived on the same street in Vandalia. She and her family moved away, but she and I were still keeping in touch. For the past few years, my friend has had some hard times and she and I have not been close. These girls are temporarily staying with other family until there mother can get her life straightened out. After not seeing the girls for several months, there grandma brought them again to the Swigart Family Hog Roast. I always get so emotional when I see them. It's amazing just how much they grow every time I see them. So after seeing them, I decided to invite them to our house for a sleep over. We had so much fun. We started Friday night by making some cookies, then a rousing game of Shoots and Ladders (even got Jonathan to play with us) then movies and popcorn. We snuggled on the couch to watch the lively Hannah Montana and Veggie Tales. After a VERY late night, the girls were wide awake at 7am Saturday, ready for there Chocolate Chip Pancake and bacon Breakfast. Once the revolving door of the shower was done, we loaded up and headed to Greenville to do some girls day shopping. They each got to pick out there own outfit and a pair of shoes. I should really apologize to the people at JCPenney for the possible mess we left behind. After trying quite possibly everything on in the girls section, they finally picked there out fits. I did my best to put the close back where they were supposed to go. I should also give a big thanks to the gentleman that helped us at Shoebilee. He was very patient and helpful while we had to try on every shoe before we could pick one. All the shopping left us hungry, so we headed to the McDonald's to play in the cold and wet Play land and grab some Barbie Happy Meals. I then drug them through the Grocery to grab the fixins for dinner. We headed home and warmed up with Hot Chocolate and a rest while watching Veggie Tales.......again.....and again.. The girls then tackled there Turkey Taco dinner like champs and then it was time to go home. I hope they had as much fun as I did that weekend. I just wanted to take the time to spoil them and I'm pretty sure they were sufficiently spoiled. After taking them home, I came home and crashed on the couch. WHEW!!

Next, we fast forward to last weekend.
After months of discussing when the right time would be, Jonathan and I got us a new toy. We got a new 2007 Polaris Sportsman 500X2 Limited Edition. This one legally seats 2 people. They call it a 2-up. For the moment, it will get used for plowing snow through the winter, but we are hoping to maybe do some trail riding next spring/summer.

Now this brings us to today.
I made a turkey for the first time today. It was something that I new I needed to learn how to do, but was always a bit intimidated buy such a big piece of meat. So many people kept telling me that it's Soooooo easy and that I shouldn't be afraid to try it. So, I picked the cheapest per pound (just in case I really messed it up) and started thawing my turkey on Wednesday. I new we didn't have any plans for today and it really worked out to be a good day to be inside at home. I made sure to check my cookbooks, the Internet and of course my dad for advice on how to cook a turkey. I had myself a bit frazzled while wrestling with the turkey, but Jonathan was able to finally get it closed up for me. I gave it a good Canola rub and tossed it into the oven. Since we don't have a window on our oven, I had to resist the urge to open the oven door every 10 minutes. I thought the hardest part was judging when to take it out of the oven. The breast meat was done long before the dark meat which left me worried about drying out the breast meat. I couldn't stand the wait anymore, so we took it out when the dark meat read 17o degrees. The white meat did get a bit dry but the dark meat was perfect (which is what we like). We now have a weeks worth of turkey left overs to eat. Does anyone have recipe ideas for turkey left overs?
My 2 best girls. Karizma (left) and Karma (right) showing off their fabulous cookies

Our new toy.

Hopefully if the sun dicides to ever come out, we can get some better pictures.

Turkey ready to go into the oven.

Turkey ready to be eaten. Isn't he perty????

Canaan Valley, West Virginia

2008-10-23T21:30:00.004-04:00

This past weekend we decided to take Friday off and headed to Canaan Valley, West Virginia. After a 1 1/2 hour stop at Cabella's and driving in circles for another hour, we made it there in about 8 hours.
We stayed at the Canaan Valley Ski Resort Lodge. Obviously there was no snow, but we did get a great view of the fall/falling leaves.
We managed to get in some great hiking while we were there. Since so many leaves had fallen, we were never quite sure where we were stepping : rocks, roots, mud etc.... This made for some fancy footwork for the both of us.
The Lodge had a couple really great restaurants which supplied us with a really great breakfast every morning and a Germanfest Buffet on our second night (all of which were definitely not on our diet)
We also got a chance to ride the chair lift up to the top of there ski slopes. A little scary but very beautiful and cold.
Below are some pictures from our quick weekend. Sorry. It seems I have them out of sequence.
The deer in this pic is really this close. All around this park, the deer were not afraid of people. They walked very close to us and then kept on going. Almost like they couldn't see us. There seemed to be 3 that ran together. I started calling them Madge, Matilda and Mable. Hey Girls!!

Some pics of us hiking the really great scenic trails. We were the only hikers that had a map. Oddly, the only ones that looked lost. Go Figure!

Picture taken after we arrived at the Lodge. It was just getting dark and cold. It's hard to see all the color in the leaves.

A pic of all the ski slope options once you get to the top of the slope. We decided to take the lift back down .

A pic of all the wind turbines at the top of the mountains. This was quite a sight from the top of the ski slope..

Heading back down the slopes on the chair lift. At this point we are freezing cold and realizing how under dressed we are.

The Latest Max Pictures

2008-10-15T05:21:00.002-04:00

What a little sweetie pie!
Just about to smile.
Happy and content Max
Her comes the sour puss!!

Think Pink!

2008-10-07T19:12:00.005-04:00

Last week at work we got a visit from the firefighters with the Pink Ribbon Tour. This is a small group of guys from Arizona, that are traveling the country in a pink fire truck and pink gear to promote Breast Cancer Awareness

Above, are 2 of the firefighters.
OOne of my co-workers kids trying on a helmet. Lion Apparel donated the pink helmets for this tour.
As the group is traveling the country, people get to sign the truck in honor of anyone who has passed or survived Breast Cancer.

Catching up.

2008-09-28T19:29:00.003-04:00

I know I know it has been forever since I've blogged. So now I have bunch of catching up to do. A lot has happened since my last entry. Like everyone else, we have been crazy busy for the past several weeks. Between Jonathan working long hours at work and me being overloaded at work and our weekends being crazy, not much time for blogging has been available ( I know, sad excuses). The only thing I've managed to catch this month is a cold!!
First, I managed to drop a glass dish on my foot, now 2 weeks ago. I had a very nice large glass dish that was given to me by my Aunt as a wedding gift. I was trying to put the dish in the refrigerator when the thin delicate glass snapped in my hand and crashed down on my foot. Instantly I start to panic when I see the blood poring from my foot and hand. I hollered for Jonathan. He came running to see the glass dish and the Watergate Salad that was in the dish, all shattered on my foot. He helped me get to the kitchen chair and grabbed some paper towels to help soak up the blood. After we wiped the Glass and salad off my foot, we found about a 1" cut on my foot. It managed to stop bleeding after a few minutes but my finger took a while longer to stop. Jonathan called nurse Geneva (his mother) onto the scene. She arrived and helped bandage up my foot, and we all determined that I probably didn't need stitches. So, my foot was in pain for a few days, mainly because of the bruise from the dish dropping. Last week I noticed that the cut was not healing. So I decided to go to the doctor to get an antibiotic. When I get there, they didn't hesitate to stick me with a tetanus shot (and everyone knows how much I LOVE needles!). The doctor examined my foot by pressing around the wound. She hit one spot to the right and it nearly made me jump off the table. The doctor asks "are you sure you don't have glass in your foot?" I said "uhhhhh, I don't think so". So she let me take the antibiotic for a few days to see if the pain would go away. When I went back on Friday, the pain was still there. So now, I am going to pay a visit to the X-Ray man tomorrow and then pay a visit to the surgeon sometime after to determine if I need surgery. GREAT! I will keep you all posted.

Also, the day after I cut my foot was the day the power went out. We were out of power for only 2 days. We spent one night with Jonathan's parents and then went home to power. I will definitely not complain about this. We were so fortunate compared to others (my parents) that were out of power for 7 days.

Last weekend we headed west for a wedding in Illinois on Saturday. My step brother and his now wife, Lacey, got married in her home town of Summerfield, Illinois. It was a really great time at the wedding and reception. A chance for my family, who rarely gets together, to have a great bonding weekend. On Sunday, we decided to head into St. Louis, which was only about 20 minutes from Summerfield. Since we were so close, we could not pass up the opportunity to go up into the St. Louis Arch. There was nine of us in my family who decided to caravan to the Arch. We had so much fun! It seemed very strange bonding with step-siblings we didn't always get along with as kids, but suddenly as adults we had a really great time.

When we arrived back home from Illinois on Sunday, we were met in the driveway by ANOTHER stray Kitten. It seemed as if we had the dumping corner for stray kittens. I hesitantly began feeding the kitten because I felt sorry for it. But since my cat liked to growl and hiss at it, bringing it into our house was not an option. I posted notes at work to see if anyone would take a free kitten. A lady that I work with decided to take the kitten for her kids. I agreed to get the cat checked out by the vet to make sure she was healthy. Yes, it was a she and I decided to name it Paprika. That's right. Pepper and Paprika! The only issue we had with the cat (actually a big issue) was fleas. The kitten was flea bitten. The vet popped a pill in her mouth to make the fleas fall off her and then recommended we give her a Dawn bath. It was pretty funny to watch Jonathan give a cat a bath. This long haired fuzzy kitten was suddenly reduced to practically nothing. I wish now I had taken a picture of Paprika while she was wet. Instead I have a regular picture at the bottom the post. So, yesterday afternoon, I headed to Dayton to drop Paprika off with her new family. I miss her already. She was a very loving and affectionate kitten, unlike Pepper who likes to terrorize us!
I also forgot to mention that we were finally able to get Pepper the cat fixed and declawed. His days of terrorizing us have come to a screeching halt. It's kinda sad to see him try to climb on things when he doesn't have nails anymore. Our legs and clothes are now very thankful for the claws to be gone. Now we just have to crack the habit of him biting and chewing. Ideas anyone!!

Pepper decided he was gonna hitch a ride with us on our trip tp Illinois. His first night being left home by himself. He was a good boy.
St Louis Arch. Sooooooooooo much bigger standing there then it seemed driving past it
View from the top of the Arch. The stadium is Busch Stadium

Picture of Paprika. She was not in the mood for a picture. She really was a sweet kitten.

Paula Reds Have Arrived!!

2008-09-01T20:50:00.004-04:00

If you were reading my blog last year, you already know that I now like to make applesauce. Unfortunately, I was a bit behind last year in getting my apples. We went to Brumbaugh's fruit farm about late September hoping to find my favorite apples to make applesauce with, Paul Red. Me, being unaware, was told that the Paula Red apple is an early apple and were long past gone. I was a bit let down and settled for whatever they had sitting out at the time.
Soooo, this year, I was on it. I decided to take action. I called Brumbaugh's 2 weeks ago to ask when the Paula Red apples would be ready. They told me they didn't have any yet but should have some by that Friday. I politely asked if they "reserve" apples (hey, ya don't know until ya ask, right?) I was told yes. The girl told me they weren't expecting a big crop of Paula Red this year and that they would go fast. I panicked!!! UHHH. UMMMMM. " I''ll take 3!!" I said. Ma'am? 3 apples?? she said. "No. 3 large bags".
So that's what I have. 3 large bags of Paula Red apples. About 70 apples total just waiting to be pealed and turned into my favorite applesauce.
My dilemma. Should I feel guilty for taking so many apples when they didn't have that many this year? I missed out last year because I was uninformed. This year I was educated. So... I guess the early bird gets the worm!

Grandma's first visit

2008-08-18T21:04:00.002-04:00

This past Saturday was my moms first time getting to see her new grand baby Max. As you can tell, she already loves him to pieces.
Isn't he the sweetest?? He was so good for Mom when she came to visit.
Mommy Betsy calming Max after his diaper change

Night of Fire!!!!!!!!!!

2008-08-13T20:43:00.002-04:00

This past Saturday, Jonathan and I went back to the Muncie Dragway in the middle of nowhere Muncie, Indiana. The event that night was Night of Fire. Where along with the locals that like to bring there cars to the track, but also an exhibition race for anyone with a monster machine. The prime attraction was the semi with jet engines. Unfortunately just as he was at the line about to go, he broke down. Then the thunderstorm came. Luckily we managed to get some pics while walking around behind the scenes. We got to see some of the other exhibition cars go down the track, but I wasn't able to get very many pics since they are obviously going so fast. About 9:15, they called the races and everyone ran for there cars.
Jonathan and I have been to this track many times before, but this was only our second year seeing "Night of Fire". Since we saw the Jet Semi last year, we weren't to hip on waiting around for him to fix the truck. I'm a big fan of the long Dragsters while Jonathan loves all the hot rods loaded with the Nitrous.

Dragster with a really cool paint job.
Exhibition dragster "Blue Ice" loaded with a jet engine. (as if they aren't fast enough)
Awesome Corvette that did really well on the track.
Premier attraction "Shockwave". Jet Semi that broke down on the line.
Yes, this is a quad-runner also loaded with a jet engine. A bit scary to watch shooting down the track

No. This one doesn't have a jet engine. I just thought it was goofy looking
A perty Camaro doing his burnout.
This was really cool. This guy is a local that he and his wife have been building up this truck. It is just a diesel Dodge Ram loaded with 2 sacks, Nitrous and large racing tires. They said they were experimenting with the Nitrous for the first time. I can't recall how fast his time was, but he got a wow and a standing ovation from the crowd.
The only semi-clear picture we could get on the track. Only because he did his burnout all the way up to where we were. We caught this as he was backing up to the line.

Max Nicholas Swigart born: 8-5-2008

2008-08-05T22:03:00.002-04:00

Introducing, Max Nicholas Swigart. Max is my new baby nephew born just today @ 4.24pm, weighing in at a healthy 6 lbs. 13 oz and 19" long. His proud parents, Nick and Betsy, are doing very well after the long labor and delivery. We aren't exactly sure yet, but the family suspects the red head gene had been passed down to Max.
Jonathan and I made it to the hospital after work and got to meet him. He wasn't even 3 hours old and they let us hold him.
I am over the moon happy for my brother and his wife!!!!!!!!!! Check out the pictures!!

Look!!! I think he's smiling!!!!!!
Mommy Betsy and Max.
Max's first bottle feeding.
Do I look happy or what?
Uncle Jonathan

Evening in Celina

2008-08-05T21:52:00.002-04:00

This past Saturday evening, Jonathan and I decided to head up to Celina to stroll around Grand Lake and to grab some dinner. Got a few pics on the Lake.

We drove one lap around the lake before we decided to eat at Bella's in Celina. A really great Italian restaurant right next to the lake.

After dinner we decided to find where Jonathan's cousin Kenny and Amy live. And wouldn't ya know it, they were out working in there garden when we came up to there house. So we decided to stop in and say hi. We got to check out there REALLY big garden and received some really helpful advice for our garden next year.

With the great weather that day, the evening turned out real nice for us.

Introducing.......PEPPER!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-07-23T21:39:00.002-04:00

Well, we now have a new addition to our home. Making his grand debut to the world, is Pepper!!
pepper arrived on our door step exactly 2 weeks ago today. Jonathan and I were up getting ready for work when we heard a cat in the front bushes. We went outside to find a small kitten popping out of the bushes. He seemed to be crying like a baby. I couldn't help but fall in love with him. Jonathan new it was over right then and there.
Jonathan has never wanted animals in the house (country boy) and I have been pondering the thought of a cat for a while now.
Later that day, after Jonathan and I talked, Jonathan said he would let me decide if we were going to keep him. I tossed around the idea for a few days while I was feeding him on the front porch everyday. I knew we couldn't keep him as an outside cat because our road is way too busy. So the only options were to keep him in the house or take him to the animal shelter. I decided to keep him.
That Saturday I took him to the vet. We found out that he is in perfect condition and is 8 weeks old. That was the day we brought him into the house.
He has been so much fun. Although we are literally counting the days until the claws can be removed. Jonathan and I both have battle wounds all over us. Also hoping the furniture can make it another 1 1/2 months.
I know Jonathan was a little leery of having him in the house, but as predicted, they have now become buddies. I have to say, I think he is quite personable. We get the biggest kick out of watching him play. His own tale can entertain him for quite a while. Instead of scratching his scratching pole, he climbs it then spins around and around. I seem to call him Turkey more then anything when he is being ornery.
I guess I could tell a few more stories, but I will just let the pics do the talking.

Here he is!!!!!!! What a turkey.
Pepper thought this would be a good place for his next nap. On the news paper while it's being read.
My two best guys.

A Very Busy Weekend

2008-07-20T20:11:00.005-04:00

This weekend has been very busy for us.
If you have ever driven by our house, you have seen the hideously large bushes in our yard. We had 7 of these in our back yard. One fell down with the ice storms we had last winter, and the others we cut down this weekend. Jonathan started with the chainsaw on Thursday and then rented a chipper on Saturday for he and his dad to run everything through.

On Sunday I threw my sister-in-law, Betsy, a baby shower for my new nephew, Max, on the way in less then 3 weeks.. Due to space, we had the shower at the Holiday Inn, which really ended up working out pretty good. They made all the food for us and did all the prep and cleanup. Only thing I had to do was decorate and bring the cake.
I also gave Betsy the baby blanket that I had made for her. All those weeks that Jonathan was working out of town, I spent at Jonathan's parents house. I had the idea and did all the prep work. Jonathan's mother helped me sew it together. I hadn't touched a sewing machine since I was 13 and a Girl Scout. I was definitely a little rusty. I sewed it together and Jonathan's mother fixed all the boo boo spots for me. Pics are posted below.

I also have an updated picture of our garden which seems to have exploded the past few weeks. I have a pic posted of the first cucumber picked on Saturday. We invited Jonathan's Mother over for lunch since the guys were still chipping up the bushes. We all got a taste of the first pick of the season. We also noticed the Roma tomatoes finally starting to come in. The corn has the silk, but the beetles seem to be getting there way at the moment. I think we will be spraying this week to keep the pests off. Hopefully the corn will make it. I think the corn might only have another week or two left.

Look Out!!! Stand Clear!!
Timberrrrrrrr!!!
Running everything through the Chipper.

Baby shower cake that says "Baby Max".
Betsy received a Onesie that said Australia from one of my cousins. She just got home from Australia after three weeks, on Saturday. She managed to bring this back for Betsy's shower.
This is the baby blanket that I made.
Garden check. As you can see, things are a bit crowded with the cucumbers having there way.
First pick of the season before we cut into it. I haven't quite figured out why they call them Straight Eight Cucumbers. Judging by the look of things, we will have plenty to share!!

Niagara Falls

2008-07-12T11:42:00.004-04:00

Last weekend, everyone knows we went to Niagara Falls. I have to say, Jonathan and I had a really great time. If you haven't been there yet then it needs to be added to your list.
We ended up renting a car for the trip to help ease up on the mileage on our car. We paid for a full size car hoping to get a Dodge Charger. We ended up getting a Jeep Compass. To me, it definitely did not seem like a full size car. It was an SUV that was smaller then our car. Luckily it was just my size for driving. I think it even grew on Jonathan along with getting decent gas mileage.
We arrived on Thursday about 2pm, about an hour ahead of what we predicted. We just kinda took it easy that day since we had been driving so much. We first headed to dinner at The Red Coach Inn. The menu was VERY expensive, so I ended up with a Cheese Burger and Jonathan got the Fish n Chips. They had to be the fanciest Burger and Fish I had ever seen. We then strolled down to the falls. Luckily, our hotel was within walking distance of most everything important. When we got back to the hotel that night, we got to watch a spectacular Fireworks display over the Seneca Casino that we could see from outside our hotel.
On Friday, we decided to join a tour that picked us up at our hotel. The bus took us to all the important sights and definitely saved us a bit of gas and driving frustration. Since it was the fourth of July, everyone around the world was also there. We got to stop at Maid of the Mist, Cave of the Winds, Goat Island, The Whirlpool, Thunder Theater and a few other places that I can't remember what they were called. Jonathan and I really loved the Maid of the mist and Cave of the Winds. We got to take the boat all the way up to the falls in Maid of the Mist. In Cave of the Winds, we got to climb to the side of Bridal Veil falls while letting the falls come down on us. We got a few pics of m\Maid of the Mist but couldn't get any of Cave of the Winds. That night we watched the Fireworks displayed over the falls.
On Saturday, we just did our own thing. We walked the streets and the falls again. At night we headed to the falls again to see the Illumination at the falls. They light up the falls most every night and everyone migrates down there to get the best pictures.
On Sunday, we started home. When we got to Erie, PA we decided to stop on Presque Isle. This is a peninsula that goes into the Erie Lake from Erie. Presque Isle is a heavily wooded Park that was filled with campers, boats, fishing, biking and everything else needed for a great family destination. It also had a really great view of the lake.
We finally made it home about 6pm on Sunday.
Jonathan did take some videos while we were there, but we still can't figure out how to get them on the computer. Anyway, hope everyone likes our other pictures

The Trolley we took the first day that took us all around for $2.00.
Bridge over the Niagara River that goes over to Goat Island
Us at the Falls
Fireworks at the Seneca Casino
The biggest Firework we saw over the Casino. Probably the biggest I had ever seen.

One of the bridges that leads over to Canada. What you can't see is the long line waiting to get across the boarder.
View of the American Falls From Maid of the Mist
That's me wearing the rain poncho for Maid of the Mist
View of Horseshoe Falls

View of American Falls from the Observation Deck

Our goofy shoes given to us as part of the Cave of the Winds tour, so our sneakers wouldn't get wet.
Sunset view of the Canadian Farris Wheel
That's us at the Illumination on Saturday.
Presque Isle Fishing Pier and Lighthouse
That's me at Presque Isle Lagoon

What were you doing one year ago today??

2008-07-07T17:48:00.002-04:00

One year go today, actually to the minute, Jonathan and I were getting married.

Above, is a picture of our anniversary cake. This was made buy the same lady that made our wedding cake. To make sure everyone got a piece of cake at the wedding, we decided not to keep the top layer of our cake. Instead, she offered to make us a fresh 1 year anniversary cake. Since Jonathan and I had both taken today off work, we ventured down to Dayton to pick up the cake.

So tonight we are cookin out and having cake for dessert.

I will have our Niagara Falls pics posted soon. I need a chance to sort through them and make sure we got some good shots. Also, does anyone know how to post videos on the blog? At the moment, we can't figure out how to get them out of the camera. We got a new camera before our vacation and now we can't figure how to work it. HELP!!

Almost 1 Year!!

2008-07-02T16:34:00.002-04:00

To celebrate our 1 year anniversary, we have decided to take a little vacation. Many of you already know we are heading off to Niagara Falls.
We are up an at'em at 4:30 am tomorrow morning. Instead of flying this time, we are taking on the open roads. Yes. This is the first road trip that Jonathan and I have taken by ourselves. We have taken long trips before, but usually with 1 or 2 others in the car. I am usually comfortably sleeping in the back seat, but this time I actually get to help drive. We are expecting about an 8-9 hour trip, weather/traffic permitting. Unofficially, I am going to attempt the drive to Cleveland then help Jonathan navigate through Buffalo and Niagara Falls.
We are renting a car this time to help alleviate the mileage off our car. Jonathan is pumped because we may get to drive a Dodge Charger (we'll see). That will probably feel like a tank to me, since I usually drive small cars.
We will be staying on the New York side, since we weren't sure if we could get into Canada. (Does anyone actually know? We have gotten so many different answers) I guess we will wait and see when we get there. I'm really hoping to see a great fireworks display while we are there.
Anyway, I will fill everyone in upon our return! Stay tuned.......................

Look what's growing around the house!

2008-06-22T22:17:00.002-04:00

Both of these rose bushes were given to us last year at one of my wedding showers from Jonathan's family. His Uncle Don and Aunt Janet along with there whole family went in together to get us these roses. The yellow one grew pretty good last year and the red was a bit slow and worrisome. After the hack job we did on them last fall, they managed to bounce back like champs. The red roses are growing even bigger this year!!!

We have life!! Yes, I feel I am over coming the Swigart curse. Swigarts aren't exactly known for green thumbs (except for my Aunt Sandy who is president of the flower club). A Swigart yard usually isn't the prettiest on the block. But, I think I am having some luck with my garden. This picture is about 2 weeks old. So, the plants are actually a little bigger now. I think my corn will be knee high buy the 4th of July!! My tomatoes had me worried for a few weeks while it was cool. All the leaves had fallen off the plants and they only looked like sticks in the ground. But now they are bushy with leaves. In about another 2 weeks, we should be ready to tie them up. My cucumber seeds had some issues though. I planted 2 hills of seeds like I was supposed to. With the cool weather we had, they just didn't want to come up. So, I went to Walley World and found some cucumber plants. I planted 2 in the garden and they began to take off right away. Wouldn't ya know it, when we came back from Pennsylvania, 3 of my cucumber seeds sprouted through. That was a VERY hot weekend and apparently just what the seeds needed to start growing. We now have 5 cucumber plants growing. So, I think we will be up to our ears in cucumbers this year (Hopefully). If anyone needs cucumbers around about August, just give us a call!

Abe S. Yoder Jr. 4/9/1915 - 6/3/2008

2008-06-11T20:26:00.003-04:00

This past Sunday Jonathan and I along with his brother Steve made the long journey once again back to Big Valley. A glorious stretch of Gods Country located in the Kishacoquillas Mountains of Pennsylvania. The small Amish town of Belleville was our destination.
This trip was different then any other time that I have gone with Jonathan and his family. This trip was to celebrate the life of Abe Yoder, Jonathans grandfather. Grandpa Yoder passed away in the evening on Tuesday, June 3, 2008.
To say that Abe was a well liked man in Big Valley is a bit of an under statement. In his 93 years, Abe had the pleasure of touching many lives, mine included. His undying love of The Lord was reflected in everything he did and to everyone he talked to. The last few months of his life were spent in the hospital or in the nursing home in Big Valley. Many people have said that they went to visit him hoping to cheer him up. When really, Abe was usually the one cheering up the visitor buy the time they left.
Jonathan and I both expected this funeral to be a big event in Big Valley. They weren't able to have the funeral at there own church because they knew there wouldn't be enough room. So they moved the viewing and funeral down to the Locust Grove Mennonite Church, which is also right around the corner from where he would be burried. We believe there were 500 to 600 people who showed for the 2 viewings on Sunday and about 200-250 that came for the funeral service on Monday.
The funeral service was absolutely beathtaking to say the least. Abe had purposefully chosen some of the songs we sang that day. With each song reminding everyone of how much he loved Jesus. I can honesty say that I have never heard singin the way I heard that day. The first song we sang was "The Love of God" and I'm pretty sure there wasn't a dry eye in the room. All 3 of Abes sons got up and also sang for the crowd, one of the songs being a song that Abe had requested. For those that came to our wedding last July, you were fortunate to see Abe singing with his sons for one of the last times.

The picture above really means a lot to both Jonathan and I. We weren't for sure if either one would be able to make the long hot trip from Pennsylvania to come to our wedding last summer. Somehow, they both made it and we were able to get some priceless pictures that will aways be cherished.

On the back of the funeral service program, they printed some quotes that were noted and written in Grandpa Yoder's Bible. One of the quotes written that I felt I related to the most was:

"Knowing about God interests us. But knowing God changes us."

Indianapolis 500

2008-06-01T21:11:00.005-04:00

Last Sunday, we did one of the awsomest (yes I said awsomest) things ever. We went to the Indianapolis 500. I got the tickets in September and it seemed to take forever for the day to arrive.
The day started early. We were out the door about 7:15am because we knew we would have to fight the traffic. We exited off the highway in Indianapolis at exactly 9:00am and got about 2 miles down the road and there we sat in traffic. It took us 2 hours to get from where we were stopped, to our parking spot. We bought a prepaid parking pass, but we were very tempted to just part in someones yard, like everyone else. People were making a killing buy charging people to park in there front yard. But we carried on and waited for our parking lot to appear. Once we made it to our parking spot we headed out on foot. After shuffling through the crowd, we were sitting in our seats at 11:50 am. We then watched what was left and what we could see of the preshow.
Our seats weren't really the best, but they were covered and they had seat backs. We were sitting directly in front of the very last pit. The only great thing about our seats were that we could see everyone coming into the pit and we could see all the starts. The pace car would exit and the cars would step on it just to our left. Other then that, we had to watch the race up on the jumbo tron screen. If you have ever been to this track, you know there is no good seat. It is impossible to see the whole track at once.
When the race finally started, I was completely star-struck. I couldn't believe I was actually there. This has always been on my "to do" list. I have watched these guys and gals race for a while now, and now i was actually there. Even though I couldn't see there face, I was still star-struck. I spent most of the race trying to get pictures of Danica Patrick (only the coolest chic ever). I would definitely advise taking a fast camera. Our camera is pretty slow and became very hard to get the shots I wanted. Most of them were a blur and had to be deleted.
I would say that I am a pretty big fan of Danica now. When she got bumped on pit road and was taken out of the race, the crowd was on there feet booing and I had an upset stomach. I think a lot of people, like me, thought this could have been her year. I think Danica has really done a lot for this sport and will hopefully bring more women as racers and as fans. I plan on ordering my T-shirt soon.
Anyway, it became a long race with quite a few wrecks happening in turn 4 along with one right in front of us as his car slid sideways into the pits sending everyone scrambling over the wall. The race was finally over about 4:45pm'ish. We stuck around for a bit to let the rushed crowd out. We then started our shuffle back to the car, and sat there for another half hour. We finally got on the road and was still sitting in traffic for an hour. We got to my mothers house at about 7:30pm in Indianapolis, where she had a hot meal waiting for us. After the long day, a hot meal and a bed was just what we needed. Thanks Mom!!
I would definitely recommend this experience for everyone. I felt like a I was a piece of history that day, even though no records were broken. We plan on doing this again sometime. But for now, my nerves are still shot from all the traffic. So maybe this can be a once every five year thing instead of every year.
I can now add another CHECK to my list.

Danica Patricks "Go Daddy.com" car
Pit for John Andretti. One of the few names we recognized around us.
Buddy Lazier pit. directly in front of us. The very last pit.
That's us!!!!!!!!

Tony Kanaan (TK) being hauled back to the pit via wrecker. The crowd really

wanted him to win. Maybe next year Tony.

Sarah Fisher heading into her pit.
Buddy Lazier's first pit for the day. Wow look at these guys go!
This is the big start. Sorry, this is a bit out of order. The pace car just got out
of the way and the crowd was on there feet.

Another one out of order. They had a preshow. They had movie stars riding

in corvettes and all parts of the military marching in.

Milka Duno. Female racer from Brazil.
Pit rush hour. I couldn't believe how intense this was just watching.
Danica Patrick and Helio Castroneves heading into the pits.
Ryan Hunter-Rae rookie year at Indy.

View from windshield on the way out. Gridlock.

A Little Late. I Know.

2008-05-19T05:53:00.002-04:00

Well, we finally did it. After weeks of Jonathan being on the road and all the rainy Saturdays, we finally have our garden done. I came home from work on Friday and Jonathan already had the garden plowed and tilled. He tilled about 4 times on Friday and Saturday. We didn't take the grass off before we plowed, so the dirt needed extra tilling. Our garden is about 12' x 16'. Just big enough to give us 3 rows of corn, 3 tomato plants and 2 cucumber hills. I wanted to start small this year and wanted to see if I could actually grow something. I am a little worried about all the grass that was left. We pulled out as much as we could before we planted, but I'm sure some will still grow back. I'll have to be out there weeding as much as possible. Hopefuly, after a couple of years of compost and just working the dirt, the grass won't be as much of an issue
I'm really excited about our garden. The first for this city kid. If all goes well, I should have more than enough to share. I will keep you all updated.

And Then There Was One

2008-05-11T20:37:00.002-04:00

Well, it appears our eggs have been relocated. However, there is still one remaining. It"s been about a week now that the nest has only had one egg. I'm assuming this is the one we named Alejandro. He's such a good boy.

Sadly I fear this nest has been abandoned. For whatever reason, this egg was left behind. I've been hoping another mommy bird would come along, but I think it's been too long. I guess I'll give it another week before we take the nest down. :(

We Have Company

2008-04-28T05:54:00.002-04:00

It looks like we have company. The weekend before we left for Arizona, Jonathan walked out our front door to notice a bird flying away from our front porch light. He looked up to notice the beginnings of a birds nest. He went to get the broom and didn't hesitate to knock it down. The very next day, the bird was back and attempting to build the nest. It got knocked down again. So finally after the third attempt from the bird, we decided to just let it be. The bird was obviously determined to keep that spot.
When we returned from Arizona, we were curious if there were any eggs. The only way to tell was by holding the camera over our head and snap a shot. Look what we found!!! Definitely more then what I was expecting. Since this is the closest thing to a pet that we will have for a while (though temporary), I feel the need to look after them. They are now welcome to camp out on our front porch. Hopefully we won't regret our choice. Does anyone know how long it takes these things to hatch??
So now, we need names. What are good names for a four-some like this?
We will keep you posted on the progress of our new temporary guests.

Weekend in Arizona

2008-04-26T13:56:00.004-04:00

On Saturday we were off to see my sister Wendy in Arizona. As soon as she and my 3 year old nephew Colton picked us up from the Phoenix Airport, we were off.
As we headed south, our first stop was in Tempe. We stopped for lunch and headed off to the Tempe Lake. They had a big local event going on on the lake/river. The best was the Cardboard Boat Race. Kids who had built there boats at school out of cardboard, and brought them to the lake to race. The results were based on who could finish the fastest with out sinking. Some of the contraptions were quite interesting and pretty funny.
After the scenic ride, we ended up finally at my sisters house in Florence. Approximately 1 hour between Phoenix and Tucson. Right in the middle of the dessert. Since Jonathan and I were so tired, we decided to cook out at her house that night.
The next day, we awoke refreshed and ready for a full day. On a whim, we decided to head about 2 1/2 hours south to the Mexican border town of Nogales. The town straddles the border of Mexico and US. We weren't sure if we could get in, but thought we would try. Once got there, we got out and walked. We didn't know where we were going, so we just followed the crowd. We finally reached the walk through border entrance. We could see the border patrol letting people in on our side, but we didn't see anyone on the Mexican side monitoring who was coming in. So, before we walked through the turnstile, we decided to ask the US Border Patrol what we need to get in to Mexico. He Responded "Nothing. But you will need a Passport or ID with Birth Certificate to get back in to the US side." UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. We were so glad we asked before we walked on through, because we didn't have either on us. Just our drivers license. So, we just spent our time walking around on the US side. There was plenty of cheap shopping. Before Jonathan and I left on this trip, we decided we wanted some good Mexican Food. So while we were wondering around Nogales, we were looking for Mexican food. Wouldn't ya know it, we were in a border town and not a single Mexican Restaurant. So we settled for the Baskin Robbins.
After a couple of hours of walking around Nogales, we decided to head back north. We ended up at a restaurant called The Cow Palace. This was definitely a themed restaurant, with everything you could imagine on the menu. Across the road was another place called the Longhorn Grille (in the pics below). Even though we didn't eat there, we had to get a picture.
We hopped back into the car and our next stop was in Tuscon. We stopped at a place called Old Tuscon. This is still an active movie lot. A place where they film old west movies. Unfortunately we got there an hour before closing time, so we didn't get to see all the shows for the day. But we did get to see one show that was a wild west bank robbery. After that we had to hustle through there to see everything. We rode a train through the park, rode some antique cars, and took lots of pics. At closing time, we just happened to be at the horse stable. They have HUGE horses that they were doing trail rides. There had to of been at least 20-30 horses in this stable. But at the end of the day, the employees hop on horses and prepair to guide the other horses to the barn for the night. It ended up being a running stampede through the town with all the horses following the guides. That was definitely my favorite part! We only managed to get pics of the horses before they left. We had already put the camera away, when the stampede started. We then headed farther north back to Florence.
This, unfortunately, is where our story comes to a screeching halt. Monday, was supposed to be our last full day there and we had a full day planned. But, at about 330am on Monday, I woke up out of bed to see Jonathan with his head hung over the toilette. At about 12 noon, that is the same place where I ended up. We both managed to catch a stomach virus. (no we didn't drink the water at the border) We were both miserably ill and on vacation. That brought all the plans we had for Monday to a stand still.
On Tuesday, we were headed back to the airport and only feeling a little better. Going home is the only thing we wanted to do but we were dreading the flight back. Our first flight was delayed so much that we wouldn't have made our connection. So the Airline sent us through Chicago to get home. With all the mishaps for the day, we still managed to make it home by midnight, within 3 hours of our original time. However, when the alarm went off at 530am, that is when the pain was felt. Jonathan had to drive 3 hours to work out of town and I managed to drag myself into the office.

especially beautiful view through the windshield

Border wall in Nogales
Border wall. Notice the people just watching through the wall on the other

side.
Walk through border entrance. Luckily we didn't go any further.
Santa Cruz County Historical Courthouse in Nogales
Even though we didn't eat here, we couldn't resist this shot.

Old Tuscon. An old movie studio where many western movies have been

filmed.
Old Tucson horses. Just before the stampede
Sorry, we had to have this shot.
View of the state park that Old Tuscon was located
View from Old Tuscon

FDIC "The Big Show"

2008-04-13T19:22:00.003-04:00

He had to try it out!
Have ya ever seen a fire truck in the air??
He had to try the jumpseat too.
Jonathan with one of the Lion Apparel dummies
Isn't he handsome? I think the helmet suits him.
Anyone in the market f0r a $400,000 vehicle? Hey, they'll
even deliver it. Sounds like a bargain to me!!
The old Chiefs car

Sorry..........I couldn't resist this shot.

This past Saturday, Jonathan and I got to attend our first FDIC show. It's the world largest Firefighter and EMT training show. Lion Apparel had an exhibit set up which allowed Jonathan and I free entry. I was strongly encouraged to go to the show since this has been my first year with the company. I didn't have to work the exhibit. We just got to walk around and see everything. I was completely blown away buy how big it was. I think Jonathan was pretty impressed too. He especially loved the fire truck. The show was at the Indianapolis Convention Center and RCA Dome.

The show had everything a Firefighter and EMT could possibly need. They had all the latest and greatest in fire trucks (even custom built), ambulances, radios, uniforms, tools, tires, CPR even the jaws of life. They had demonstrations along with a fire truck simulator. I got to meet some people that I talk too everyday but have never met and even got to check out some of the competition .

We definitely had a great time. I can't wait to go back again next year. Except next year we will be at the new Lucas Oil Stadium. SWEET!!!!!!!!!!

On the Road Again

2008-04-09T20:36:00.002-04:00

Well, all alone again. Jonathan is back on the road again with his job. Looks like this could be a while. All is well so far. This is the first week. Ask me again next week how I'm doing, I might have different story. I guess we will just have to make the best of our weekends.
We have 2 big weekends coming up. This week is "The Big Show" in Indianapolis. Next week we are off to Arizona to see my big sis, big nephew and my pint size nephew. oh yeah and my big brother-in-law.
I hope to have many pictures to share. Stay tuned.....
For now I guess I will keep this short and go busy myself. TTFN

B&B in Holmes County, Ohio

2008-03-22T21:18:00.004-04:00

I realize I'm a bit late with this blog entry, but this past week I was being lazy with my entry.
So, last weekend we decided to take a quick trip to Holmes County, Ohio. For those that aren't familiar, it's the largest area of Amish in the country. We decided to stay at a bed and breakfast called The Barn Inn, which was absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, that area wasn't exactly scenic last weekend. With all the fog we drove through to get there, and then all the flooding from the previous snow melting, there wasn't much to take pictures of. I think we may go mid to late summer next time, when there is more to see.
I was good about my shopping. the only thing we came home with was cheese from the Guggisburg Cheese Factory and a basket that I bought from an Amish girl alongside the road. Other then that, we had some great food at a couple of restaurants and just enjoyed the beautiful B&B.
This was my first experience at a B&B, and I was completely amazed. From the pictures, you can see that it is an old barn that has been completely redone into a B&B. There were 11 rooms all decorated differently along with a beautiful sitting room and dinning room. Paul and Loretta are the resident Inn Keepers and they are both very welcoming. They also made our breakfast on Sunday morning which included, stuffed french toast, a quiche-like dish, local sausage, homemade bread and cinnamon rolls. OH MY GOODNESS!! IT WAS AWESOME! I have posted some pictures of the inside and out. You can also go to www.thebarninn.com and see pictures of all the rooms to choose from. If you are looking for a few days away, this is the place to go. When we go back to Holmes County, I won't even think twice as to where we will stay.

Medical Update

2008-03-12T20:26:00.002-04:00

It appears all is well at the Yoder house. Jonathan is finally healing from his pilonidal cycst. We spent most of the weekend inside just trying to keep the cyst draining. The more it drained the better Jonathan felt. After 4 days of being holed up in the house, Jonathan finally got out of the house Saturday night. He was anxious to get to his 4wheeler at his parents house to do some plowing. The trip over there ended up being too much, so he ended up comming home and just let his dad plow our drivway. But on Sunday we managed to make a quick trip to Walmart and he seemed to be doing much better. We were both nervous about him going back to work on Monday. I tried my best to prepare him for every possible scenario, but ended up worrying for nothing. So now, he doesn't have any pain, and very little drainage to worry about. WHEW!!!!
Now that he is better, we are now planning a quick weekend trip this Saturday. If the weather cooportates, we should have some good pictures to share.
Stay tuned!!

A Week of Woes

2008-03-07T22:09:00.003-05:00

Well, here I sit at the computer on a night of a blizzard. I had been meaning to blog earlier in the week, but I'm glad I didn't. This week has been the first time that Jonathan and I have had to deal with "in sickness and in health". Though, it's not exactly life threatening, I feel it's a good example of what this phrase means.
Last Saturday, Jonathan started to feel some pain on his tailbone. Buy Monday evening, the pain had developed into a large bump. When I came home Tuesday night from work, Jonathan wasn't able to walk right or sit straight. Sadly, Tuesday was the Gods Great Outdoor Expo and needless to say, he never made it. If you may recall, Tuesday night was also the night of the ice storm. We decided that we needed to see a doctor that night, since the bump had gotten so painful for Jonathan. So, Jonathan crawled (not literally) to the car and we headed off to Wayne Hospital. When we arrived, I was very surprised to see a practically empty waiting room. Just a few sick babies and us. While we were there, the hospital lost power twice due to the storm. The lights went dark and then the generator kicked in. The nurses were saying that they had never seen this happen. Part of there computer system also went down. But they had enough to get what they needed. We finally got to our convenient care room and saw the doctor. She knew immediately what Jonathan had as soon as she saw it. She said he has a Pilonidal Cyst. It is actually very common especially among men and can be hereditary. It's a large cyst that grows on the end of your tailbone and dangerously close to your spine. She said that we could try to treat it with antibiotics and letting the cyst drain on it's own or surgery to completely remove it. Eventually he will need surgery, since the cysts inevitably come back. If he has surgery, he would be off work for 2 weeks and would require much nursing of the affected area. So, we opted for the antibiotics for now, and maybe be prepared for the surgery later on down the road.
So we headed home through the ice storm, having to take the long way, due to all the accidents blocking the main roads. When we got home, we found that our power was out, which means no running water. So Jonathan, in his state, headed to the garage to try to start our generator. After about a half hour of fighting with it, he had to give up. I began to make plans on how to handle things without power. I mainly just worried! But luckily, the power came on after being home for about an hour. We ate dinner and got ready for bed. About 1am we woke up to discover the house was really cold. The power had gone out again. We just put an extra blanket on the bed and went back to sleep. I think the power came back on again between 4am and 5am. So, we were fortunate again.
When we woke in the morning, Jonathan was still in a lot of pain. He ended up taking the rest of the week off, because the cyst had not started to drain yet, resulting in the worsening pain. Now, since I have known Jonathan, he hasn't had the need to see a doctor and hasn't called off sick from work. He also has a high tolerance for pain. So when he says something hurts and calls off work, I know it's bad.
The Dr. instructed him to soak it twice a day, and hopefully it would open up. So after 3 days of Jonathan taking long showers and taking the advice of moms on both sides, the cyst finally opened up tonight. I have never been so happy to see something so gross. It's just real slow right now, but hopefully by the end of the weekend, it will have drained enough to ease the pain and get Jonathan back to work on Monday. I am praying that this is all that needs to happen to make it better. If it's not, then I guess we are going back to the doctor on Monday.
For now, I guess I will just watch the snow fall the rest of the weekend and take care of my husband. Maybe later I can get Jonathan outside to play in the snow on Sunday.

Venison Chili

2008-03-02T19:25:00.004-05:00

This Tuesday, our church is hosting the God's Great Outdoors Sportsmen's Dinner & Outdoor Expo. This is a chance for outdoor/hunting enthusiasts to gather for an evening of guest speakers and dinner while also hearing the Word of God. It's a chance to gather with beleivers and a chance to reach non-believers all with the same interest. It's definitley mostly men that attend but women are not excluded.
As I mentioned, this is also a dinner. When some of the GGOD wives came to our Sunday school class begging for volunteers to help cook Venison Chili, I heard CHALLENGE!!!!!!!!!! I have never cooked with Venison before. I thought this would be a good way try it since they were providing the meat. I volunteered to make a double batch with 4lbs. of meat.
So after church and dinner, I headed to Sutton's for the rest of my ingredients. Luckily the church already had a recipe for me that they will put together with all the other volunteers.
After about an hour of prep. time, I had 2 frying pans of meat, onions and peppers. The final product ended up being about 7 quarts of chili. Yes, we cheated and tried some. Now I just have to find a container big enough to get it to the church.
So, if anyone is interested, the expo is at Community Grace Brethren Church in West Milton, this tuesday March 4 @ 6pm. The cost is $10 at the door. Come one Come all!!

A Trying Week With A Happy Ending

2008-02-23T19:28:00.004-05:00

This week was definitely a trying week. Along with the typical overload at work, the weather merely added to the stress. I only love the snow when I am in the comfort of my home looking out the window. Jonathan loves it any time. Not much stresses him out, not even the icy roads. One morning this week, the drive in to work was crazy. I think my hands were sore from having such a death grip on the wheel. I breathed a big sigh of relief when I finally made it. The ride home was a different story though. It was perfectly clear and the sun was shinning beautifully on to the snow. When I got home, I ran to get the camera. Above is a picture of the sun going down while still shinning on the snow.

Since Jonathan is getting home before me right now, I came home on Friday to find him cooking dinner. He has cooked breakfast a few times already, but this was the first time for him to be cooking dinner for me. I came home to him cooking our favorite quick meal of smoked sausage and mashed potatoes. This is a picture of him beating up on some potatoes. After my stressful week, this was just what the doctor ordered. I jumped into the shower to destress and had a hot meal ready by the time I was done.

Our weekends have been pretty slow lately. Just not much going on these days. I'm pretty content right now with a good book on a cold day. But today we did get our taxes done. We ended up having to take them to someone this year. With all of the new changes in 2007, there was no way we could have done it on our own. We managed to come up with enough deductions this year to give us a decent refund. I think this will help with planning our vacation this summer.
I think our schedule should be picking up in about a month or so. Hopefully then I will have more exciting things to write about.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

2008-02-14T18:18:00.003-05:00

Well, another first! Our first Valentine's Day as husband and wife. Another hoiday that we have spent together before, but this time has a different feeling.
These beautiful roses were waiting for me when I got home from work. Jonathan had his favorite Reeses waiting for him when he got home. And now we are off to dinner.
I hope everyone had a beautiful day!

Christmas in Indianapolis

2008-01-28T20:39:00.000-05:00

Mom with Bear Bear
Nick an Betsy with a picture of there new baby furniture
Betsy checking out the cool Kaleidiscope
Jonathan with a really nice Manger Scene
Aunt Retta on the left with Mom and Bear

Our Christmas season officially ended this weekend in Indianapolis. Jonathan and I along with my brother Nick and his wife Betsy spent this weekend with our mother in Indianapolis. Do to every ones busy holiday schedule we had to have it kind of late.
We headed out early on Saturday. I've been having a pretty stressful time at work lately, so I was ready to get the heck outta dodge for a few days. I figured a change of scenery for a few days would help me destress. when we all finally arrived to moms house, we were ready to do some shopping. We found out that my brother and sister-in-law are expecting there first baby in August (I'M GONNA BE AND AUNTIE!) So we were on our way to find some baby furniture. They found what they wanted in Castleton at the USA Baby. They have some really beautiful stuff there. I meant to take pictures while they shopped, but I forgot. So when we got back, I took a picture of the brochure with the both of them. HOW FUN!!
Later on, my aunt Retta came over to visit. Mom made us all a yummy ham dinner and provided the sinful desserts. After dinner it was time to open some gifts. Mom got us some cookbooks and some Christmas deco for the house. My brother and sister-in-law got an old fashion kaleidoscope and a decorative motorcycle that had wheels that were actually table coasters. Before we knew it, it was late and time for bed.
In the morning, mom woke us with coffee and a breakfast casserole. After a day of relaxing and talking, we headed home in the afternoon.
No offense to my husband, but it's always nice to have mom taking care of ya when life becomes a challenge. Thanks for the fun weekend mom!!!